Mind Body, Body and Soul? What's the difference?
The distinction is very important. As Bible believing Christians, it is important to understand what the Bible says about the spirit, soul, and body and why as we practice mind-body disciplines. The wellness industry focuses on the mind body connection. While that may not be wrong, it may for the believer be incomplete.
We are spirit first. All health and wellness comes from our spirit. The Bible tells us we are made in the image of God, who is Spirit.
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Our soul, is our mind, will, and emotions. Our soul is restored (or destroyed) as we feed our spirit. It is important to be aware of what we feed our spirit, more so than what we physically eat.
What ever we feed our spirit, will determine the health, wellness of our mind, our will, and our emotions. Feeding our spirit with various forms of Biblical meditation, frequently, through each day will restore our mind, our will, and our emotions. This in turn will bring wellness, new life, and healing to our body...
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Our body, of course is our brain, blood, muscles, etc. We prosper in health and well being as our soul prospers. Our soul will prosper as we feed it the life giving, living Word of God.
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The Word of God, the scriptures are alive and to be received like food, daily, and often.
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What better, more complete, perfect way to renew our youth, and seek health, wellness, and address the issues of aging, than to go to The Source, which is God, in Christ Jesus.
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So we are spirit soul and body as He is spirit. We are not simply mind-body.
The mind cannot stand strong against the emotions. The will is influenced by the emotions and the emotions are influenced by the will.
We are spirit soul and body. We are spirit as he is spirit.
First Corinthians 2:10 - 15 tells us that we have received his spirit and it tells us why.
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[c] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit
James 1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
What we say is important. Most of us realize the importance of what we say to others, for various reasons. One would hope that the most important reason would be how we effect them, either building them up with our words, hopefully, and not tearing them down with our words.
Still it is important for us to turn that back on ourselves. As Biblically based believers in God, we should say only what our Father says, about everything. We should say what He says about our day to day, about our selves, and about others.
That being said, we can not do that if we do not know what He says. We need to fill our Spirit, with the scriptures, the Bible, The Words of God, which are alive, and life giving. We can not stand against the onslaught of thoughts, and negativity coming our way minute to minute.
Our emotions, react to our thoughts. Our thoughts come into our minds, and have a direct effect on our will and our emotions. As I said before, our mind, will, and emotions, all make up our soul. So to put it simply, keeping it brief for this reading. If we feed our Spirits on the

life giving Words of God, those Words will grow, like seeds planted in the spring time. If we feed our spirits continually throughout our day, it's like watering those seeds, so they will take root and spout in our lives. I love that! I love anything garden!
More importantly, I love that I have a weapon with which to fight the negativity, my mind wants to wallow in. I love that I have a discipline that changes my mind, enables me to have the will to speak, and say what is right, what He says. I love that when I do it, I'm happy, not sad, down or depressed. It literally changes my emotions with each feeding of The Word, into my spirit. It restores my soul, my mind, my will, and my emotions.
So, that feeding of The Word into my Spirit, will, immediately and in the long run, as I continue, minute by minute, and day by day, to practice feeding '
my Spirit with The Word, will restore my soul. Just as the Psalm 23 says, 'He restores my soul'. He restores my mind, my will and my emotions.
We need to make this distinction. We are not merely mind and body. We are not mind, body, and soul. We are Spirit, Soul, Body, in that order. And once we do make that distinction, we can begin to take results producing actions.
Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the whole armor of God, so that we may withstand the fiery darts of the devil (Kim version). Our own mind can drag us down. Our thoughts become our words. We speak those words, planting seeds of weeds into our lives and the lives of others
The power of life and death is in the tongue. The words we speak begin in the mind with our thoughts. Our spirit receives from whatever source we feed it with. The daily news, the community chatter, the movies and television we watch, the books we read. These become our source. With the diseases caused by stress, it should be an indication to us that, this source is faulty. It is not producing good things. We may respond to that thought, with 'well that's life, Life is hard.' That's true. Without God as our source that is true. I'm not saying our lives will be Pollyanna free of every negativity. I am saying, we have a source that offers, restoration and healing for our souls.
We can feed our soul, our mind, will, and emotions, randomly. Or we can focus on feeding our soul with life giving, renewing, restoring, Words of the Living God. These words are alive and give life to us. Jesus said, I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.
We can feed our spirit for abundance or for lack. We can move blindly through this life randomly choosing where our help comes from. Or we can choose to focus on the Truth, which brings sight to our spiritual eyes, giving us knowledge that will lift us up, give us aid, and bring us abundant life.
For now, that's enough to consider. Take time to read and consider that maybe as Christians, our options are more and better. We have a greater source. Greater is He that is in me , than He that is in the world.
Think about it? Consider it. Look it up. Spirit, Soul, Body.
That's enough from me for now... I will pick this up next time. There are so many benefits, maybe we'll focus on that next time.
In the mean time here is good reading on the subject:
The God Prescriptions by Avery M. Jackson III, MD FACS FAANS
Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation. Robert J. Morgan
Be a discerner of the Truth. When, writers, teachers, preachers cite scriptures, look them up. Read the scripture and the verses before and after. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you. And you will know the Truth.
Insightful and thought provoking. Thank you Kim.