Spirit and Soul – What’s the Difference?

The Human Being

Your brain is the collection of nerve cells in your head. Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. What separates man from animals, most people believe, is that man, being formed in the image of God also has a spirit.

The physical brain is a mass of nerves – and (by itself) is little better than a computer. I think you can intuitively discern there is a difference between your “mind” and your brain.

The Spirit and Soul

In Genesis, God breathed the breath of life (Hebrew neshamah – spirit) into the chemical compounds from the soil, and Adam became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)

The New Testament book of Hebrews (4:12) talks about dividing of the soul and spirit. The Bible clearly differentiates between the two. So what are they?

The Soul

The mind is essentially your soul. The soul is your mind, will, and emotions. Your “self” (Joyce Meyer likes to say, “I want, I think, I feel”) Those are the faculties of your soul.

The Spirit

Few people are aware of the faculties of the spirit (which are conscience and communication with God) because they are born spiritually dead.

Your spirit was essentially dead as far as God is concerned until you accepted Christ, and got baptized. Then God “quickened” your spirit. (Ezekiel 36:26 also John 3:5)

The faculties of the human spirit are communication with God, conscience and intuition. About the only communication with God that unbelievers have experience with are a nagging conscience, or when God is trying to call them. That’s about it. As a believer matures, their intuition will be sharpened. Some people, such as the late Watchman Nee, would not move until he heard from the Holy Spirit. Others of us, God has to use a baseball bat to get our attention. (Figuratively speaking, of course)

In Summary

The term “immortal soul” is really a misnomer. Technically, the spirit is the immortal part of you. The soul will be resurrected. Some souls will be resurrected to life, and some to judgement.

Let God soften your conscience — let Him remove the layers of callous that hardens each time you ignore your conscience, and let God speak to your spirit. You’ll be glad you did!

Further Study

For a very detailed look into the body, mind and spirit, get Watchman Nee’s book, The Spiritual Man. Be warned, though. There is a lot of material. And it is very deep.