The average person likely thinks of himself or herself as having a soul with a mind as the center of thought, a heart as the center of emotion and a physical body in which to live and move about in the natural world. While there is truth in this concept, a human being as depicted in Scripture is indescribably more complex than this, so much so that the precise makeup of the unseen essence of a human being is shrouded in a great deal of mystery and is only fully known and understood by God Who created us.
The human being of the Bible is a magnificent but marred composite of living, interactive parts. As God originally designed them, human beings were never meant to age, wear down and die, but to live in perfect fellowship with Him forever. Formerly, the myriad of inner levels, chambers, features, qualities and abilities of the unseen human essence were all exquisitely fitted together by God in His own image within a glorious body that worked perfectly. Israel’s King David marveled at God’s handiwork in himself when he declared in Psalm 139:14, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
The primary parts of the inner human composite are explicitly mentioned in the Great Commandment of the Bible first set forth by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 of the Old Testament and then reiterated by Jesus in the New Testament: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength,” Mark 12:29. “Strength” here denotes one’s will.
We are told in Genesis 2:7 that after God formed the first man out of the “dust of the earth” (his body), God breathed into his nostrils “the breath of life” and the man became “a living being” (or soul). We are also told in Hebrews 4:12 that by His sharp and living Word, God is able to “pierce even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” First Thessalonians 5:23 also urges Christian believers to trust that “the God of peace Himself will sanctify [them] wholly, and [preserve] their spirit and soul and body complete [and] without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What does this have to do with you and your problems? First, in the same way that a medical doctor must have a correct and thorough understanding of the largely unseen human anatomy and physiology in order to properly identify disease and treat a patient in his physical body, so too must one who seeks true and lasting inner healing have a correct and thorough understanding of the basic makeup of the unseen human heart in order to properly identify inner psychic and emotional dysfunction and achieve the desired result.
One seeking inner healing must also be willing, however, to submit to sound counsel about how the inner components of the human heart function and may be healed. This means that one must adopt a correct and thorough understanding of the true nature of God and be willing to submit to His requirements for restoration of the heart.
This includes being willing to consistently apply the proven methods that actually work and not just fool around on the fringes of improved mental health with a half-hearted “wannabe feeling better but not really change” mindset. Perhaps most importantly of all, to achieve true and lasting inner healing, one must be willing to actually use the tools that God has provided for this purpose—the tools contained in His Word.
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth,” John 4:24. You were given your life in the first instance by God’s “breath of life,” His Spirit, at Creation. You are also a spirit, and by His design you possess a soul and dwell in a body; and as a spirit being, you were made to worship God according to the way He really is, in spirit and in truth. But as noted elsewhere, all human beings are separated from God in their spirits at birth and therefore begin life marred and broken within and unable to relate to God at all.
This spiritual separation from God is the ultimate first cause of all personal mental and emotional dysfunction and suffering, and until you choose to accept and acknowledge this truth, true and lasting inner healing for you will be impossible.
Do You Want to Be Made Well? 