The Doctrine of the Human Spirit

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Like many words, soul and spirit have technical and nontechnical meanings. Either word may be used to refer to human life. These doctrines define their technical meanings. Their technical meanings do not apply to each and every passage of Scripture.

The human spirit is might be understood as a reflection of the human soul; but directed toward God rather than toward man. The human spirit relates God to ourselves; and the human soul relates other people to ourselves. Man is born with a human spirit that is not functioning or is dormant. When we are born again, that human spirit is regenerated.

Doctrine of the Human Spirit

I.      The human spirit is distinguished in Scripture from the human soul.

        A.     Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is alive, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

        B.     2Thess. 5:23b May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless...

II.     In the original creation of man, the human spirit was made alive along with the soul.

        A.     Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul. Note the plural in Breath of lives; this refers to the soul and spirit. The bolded words are spirit and soul.

        B.     We find this soul and spirit spoken of together in Job 7:11 12:10.

III.    The unbeliever is born without a human spirit. He cannot understand spiritual phenomena. He is dichotomous.

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

        B.     We are all born as natural men; with a fully-functioning sin nature but without a functioning human spirit.

        C.     Jude 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. The word translated sensual is psuchikos (ψυχικός) [pronounced psoo-khee-KOSS], which means, soulish; natural; unregenerate; of or belonging to breath; having the nature and characteristics of the breath; the principal of animal life, which men have in common with the brutes; governed by breath; the sensuous nature with its subjection to appetite and passion. Thayer definitions only. Strong’s #5591. This is the adjective for the noun soul.

        D.     Unregenerate man does not have the apparatus for perception, and he is guided only by his own human IQ.

        E.     God the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit in the presentation of the Gospel to the unbeliever so that he can be saved.

                 1.     Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."

                 2.     John 16:8-11 "And when He [God the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged."

                 3.     1 Corinthians 2:14-16 But the natural [= psuchikos] man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. R. B. Thieme, Jr., in the Doctrine of GAP, spent two hours explaining this short passage.

        F.     At the point of salvation, both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit are given to the believer. Being born again means that the human spirit is given life (or is regenerated). We now potentially have a place in our mentality with which to process and store information about God.

IV.    The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is trichotomous: body, soul and spirit.

        A.     1Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

        B.     The giving of the human spirit and the Holy Spirit makes human IQ no longer a handicap. Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

        C.     Spiritual perception functions under the principle of grace, Holy Spirit, human spirit, and the Word of God.

        D.     The Spiritual IQ of the believer is in the human spirit, and is determined by the amount of the word of God in the human spirit.

                 1.     Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding."

                 2.     Ephesians 3:16-19 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge, that you [all] might be filled with all the fullness of God. The spiritual life occurs within a person’s soul and spirit—in the inner man. R. B. Thieme, Jr. also spent two hours on this passage in the Doctrine of GAP.

                 3.     You can be a brilliant person and know virtually nothing about God; you can be a barely functioning adult, and yet have great knowledge of God and the Word of God.

V.     The human spirit is both the target and storage area for the Word of God under the concept of full knowledge.

        A.     The filling of the Holy Spirit is necessary to get the Word of God from the Bible to the mind to the human spirit.

                 1.     John 14:26 "But the Comforter, Who is the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you.” The Comforter is God the Holy Spirit.

                 2.     1Corinthians 2:9-16 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (Isa. 64:4)

                 3.     1John 2:27 But the anointing which you [all] have received of Him abides in you, and you [all] need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is Truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you [all] will abide in Him.

        B.     Knowledge of the Word of God in the mind is called gnosis, which has not yet been believed in. It is something that we have been made aware of; and stands as academic knowledge.

        C.     The Word of God which is transferred by faith to the human spirit is called epignosis, full knowledge or rooted doctrine.

                 1.     Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

                 2.     Colossians 2:6–7, 3:9–10 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, being rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices... (VW) The new man is the soul and spirit of the growing believer; that is, the believer with Bible doctrine in his soul.

                 3.     The difference between gnosis (= knowledge) and epignosis (= full or complete knowledge) is the expression, By means of faith; (pistis). Ephesians 3:17 (above)

        D.     The target therefore for the Word of God is inside the human spirit which becomes the basis of application or wisdom.

VI.    The Word of God is usable only from the human spirit.

        A.     Intake of the Word of God into the mind as frame of reference and Divine viewpoint.

        B.     Exhale of the Word toward God and man. The human spirit stores knowledge of God and interacts with God. The human soul stores knowledge about people and interacts with other people. Many decades ago, R. B. Thieme, Jr. developed the Doctrine of the Edification Complex of the Soul. The weakness in this doctrine was, there was no differentiation made between our relationship with other people and with God. See the God-ward and the man-ward sides of the Edification Complex (HTML) (PDF) (WPD). This doctrine will show the original edification complex structure and the revised version. The God-ward side is the human spirit and the man-ward side is the human soul.

        C.     Bible doctrine in the soul results in having eyes in your soul.

        D.     Bible doctrine in the soul results in maturity of the soul. Ephesians 4:12-16, 20-24 For the perfecting [or, maturing] of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ [that is, spiritual maturity]; That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the Truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ; From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. But you [all] have not so learned Christ; If so be that you [all] have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the Truth is in Jesus; That you [all] put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that you [all] put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. All of the body working together is the function of various believers who are spiritually mature, so that their gifts are all functioning without there being inordinate competition or people working in cross purposes with one another.

VII.   Since the Word of God in the human spirit is the basis for spiritual IQ (Eph. 3:16-19), the human spirit is the area of refreshment.

        A.     2Corinthians 7:13 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort; yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy to Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

        B.     The Word of God stored in the human spirit constitutes the basis for grace orientation.

VIII.  It is the human spirit that goes to God at death. Acts 7:59

From http://gracebiblechurchwichita.org/?page_id=181 accessed December 17, 2013; and is probably ultimately attributable to R. B. Thieme, Jr. Edited and appended.

See also:

Doctrine of Soul & Spirit (probably attributable to R. B. Thieme, Jr.)

Dano’s Doctrine of the Human Spirit

Wenstrom’s Doctrine of the Human Spirit.

Baytown’s Grace Bible Church’s Doctrine of the Human Spirit.

The Abbreviated Doctrine of

Bibliography