I was a mess when Jesus rescued me in my very early twenties.  He had much soul work to do on me.  There’s still soul work being done on me.  Thankfully, my spirit man is being renewed day by day within.

In the gospels, we read how Jesus said to His disciples and especially Peter,

Matthew 26:40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

It wasn’t long after that exchange that Peter cut the ear off one of the guards that had come to arrest Jesus, and Jesus had to do a miracle and put the ear back on the man and tell Peter to put away his sword.

Peter was dealing with the situation as he had learned according to his ways before knowing Jesus.  His soul was not yet on board in this situation with the Spirit.  Like all of us, Peter had some soul catch-up to do.

It is God’s desire that the whole of us be preserved blameless until the coming of Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Father does not just care about our spirit.  He cares about the whole person, body, soul, and spirit.  This is why allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us to think differently in our souls and to act differently in our bodies is important.  This is especially important for those of us who minister the word of God to others.

1 Corinthians 9:27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

This work of the soul is often referred to as character building.  It can be difficult for my body to respond correctly if my soul thinks incorrectly about a situation.  My soul is like the steering wheel of my body.  I need to be washing my soul with the truth of the word of God for this reason.  This is made clearer in,

Ephesians 4:20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

I am still learning what it means to live out of the righteousness I have been made already in Christ.  Thankfully, whenever I miss the mark, there is grace at the throne of grace for me, and I do not need to be stuck in an emotional prison of failure.  I get to keep going and learn from any mistakes I may make.  But if I refuse to learn and grow and allow the word of God to wash my mind and refresh my soul, I am destined to repeat the very thing I just regretted so badly and which likely produced undesirable consequences in my life that I would have much rather avoided.

The point of all this is that getting my soul and spirit in sync is of great importance, and to do that, I need His word much more than just what one can get in a single Sunday service.  I encourage you to take His word seriously and engage it every day.  The whole you needs it more than you may realize.  Without it, we are left with whatever emotions, reasoning, and responses our affected soul and body have to offer.  That is not always the best.