We are a three-fold being.
1. We are body…the physical.
2. We are soul…the home of our mind…the knowledge entity; home of our will…the decision making entity; and the home of our emotions…the feelings entity.
3. But we are also spirit…the connection to God. John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
In a perfect situation, we are to be moving in and about all entities. This represents wholeness. If any of the entities are neglected, we become out of balance and miss out on our purpose.
I am a Christian. I have settled the issue that some things I will never be able to prove. Christianity is based on faith. I trust God with the things that are beyond my knowledge base and ability to understand. I am at peace with that.
These are some of my observations:
1. My body likes tangible evidence…that is why a hug, an intimate night, an embrace are important.
2. My soul likes verifiable evidence. My mind needs to wrap around the facts. My will wants to make a decision based on evidence and facts. My emotions want to sense proof. This is perfectly fine when you are dealing with soul-ish issues.
3. My spirit wants evidence also…but we walk by faith not by sight. When it comes to God, your spirit takes over. I believe in God…I don’t need tangible, verifiable evidence that scientists come up with. I have something better…I have faith!
Faith is the substance, the underlying reality, the title-deed of things we are expecting.
Remember that we are talking about Biblical faith, that is, the kind of faith the Bible talks about. It is the faith that comes by hearing the Word of God, the faith that believes the promises of God.
When we believe what God has promised in His Word, we possess the title-deed to whatever it is that He has promised. That thing is ours, it belongs to us. Because we have believed God’s promise, we have every right and expectation to see it come to pass. It makes no difference whether or not we have seen it yet, it belongs to us anyway.
Faith lays hold of the Word of God, and makes it obvious to us that what God has promised is being accomplished at the spiritual level, even though we do not yet see it at the natural level.
Paul understood this well, for he instructed the Corinthian believers, “We walk by faith, not by sight.†First comes faith, then comes sight.
I have settled the issue that I have a relationship with God Almighty. I have taken this fact into an arena of my being that is protected. I will let no argument chip away at this truth in my life. I have been with the Lord now…60 years. I have had my ‘Joseph Years’ and I will probably have more…years of extreme testing. My stance now is this, “God, no matter what…I am committed to stay with You through good times and bad!”
Word of warning to parents of teenagers: If you teach your children that you can totally prove the existence of God or if they think that what we have taught in church is in the realm of verifiable evidence, then college professors are going to eat them alive. There is plenty of proof but God will never give us 100%. We would not need faith then. Faith is the thing God is looking for from us. So teach them that it is based on a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and that it is based on faith!