What does the Bible teach about the soul, including its strengths and weaknesses, and how it relates to spiritual warfare and the filling of the Holy Spirit?
The Bible teaches that the soul is a complex entity with various strengths and weaknesses. A person's volition, mentality, conscience, emotion, and self-consciousness can all be either positive or negative influences on their life. The soul is also the battleground where spiritual warfare takes place between the flesh (sin nature) and the Spirit of God. As believers, we are born again into this world as frontline fighters in a universal conflict against Satan and his angels. Our old man was crucified with Christ, but the sin nature is still present and will fight the work of the Spirit at every step. The solution to this conflict is willing surrender by the believer to the Spirit of God, which leads to confession of sin and cleansing. We can produce either 'the works of the flesh' or 'the fruit of the Spirit.' A person is spiritual when—and only when—he is filled by means of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is an absolute—at any moment of time we are either one hundred percent filled by the Spirit and therefore spiritual, or we are not filled by the Spirit at all and are therefore carnal.
Source: The Basics The Basics — Soul (canonical doctrine) · Read this lesson in the book →
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See also
- What is the nature of sin?Same lesson · The Basics
- What does the Bible teach about freedom?Same lesson · The Basics
- What is the spiritual significance of letting God do great things in our lives?Same lesson · The Basics
- What does the Bible teach about death?Same lesson · The Basics
- What is the spiritual life?Same lesson · The Basics
- What is the role of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life?Same lesson · The Basics
Scripture this answer rests on
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Where this is taught in the book
Lesson 4–5: Empowering—The Spirit
Lesson 2–2: The Base—The Church
Lesson 1–1: The Problem—Sin
Scripture is not BTBM’s to license: the references above link to Blue Letter Bible (NASB95), and the verse text shown on this page is served by BLB under their own license and terms.
