THE DEPARTING SPIRIT

  Mankind are living souls. “Soul” is from the Greek “psyche” and it means “to breath”. Scripture says that “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). Adam (man) was material, and God breathed spirit into him, and he was made alive. “Living” is the soul containing God’s Spirit. And people think living is nearly breathing! Those with souls without God’s Spirit, then, are the waling dead. That’s what Adam and Eve failed to comprehend!

  It appears, then, that the body is the vessel for the spirit, but it is material. Matter is not holy but Spirit is. Therefore, there must be a container for God’s Spirit to separate “it” from the body.

Think of the soul as similar to the uterus in certain ways. The uterus is basically an incubator for the developing fetus. It’s the nursing home for the unborn child until it can live on its own. It is a sanctuary from the world until old enough to adapt to the world. Another word for uterus is “womb.” Therein, the placenta provides oxygen and nutrition to the gestating baby. The uterus accepts life and grows it. Growing indicates a living organism. The placenta isolates the child’s blood from the mother’s. They are two separate entities as far as life-blood is concerned. They are two separate beings, one living in the sanctuary of the other. If the mother’s blood was allowed to mix with the developing child’s, it could be deadly for both of them!

  Although the soul is much like the uterus, it is not material. It is without physical body, presence or form (incorporeal) and is an “essence” that has an identity. It is a “substance” but a supernatural substance in that it cannot be detected with the senses or instrumentation. Therefore, because it is incorporeal, science disqualifies itself from its study. To them, the soul does not exist because they have no way to understand it.

  The soul can be understood although it is incorporeal. It is an invisible “womb” which incubates the Holy Spirit breathed unto it. Unlike the uterus which has shape, mass, and properties, the soul itself does not. It is what is inside of it. There are three “things” which can live in the soul: (1) Nothing, (2) Goodness, and (3) Evil. If God is “good” and only God Is (Mat 19:7), then it is God who lives in the soul. The person is merely material, and has no spiritual goodness. Adam was created in the image of God, and that was “very good.” (Gen 1:310). That was because God breathed His Spirit into Adam, not that Adam was good.

  The soul can also contain evil, although not at the same time as good. Theologians have difficulty with God not “looking” upon sin, then consorting with Satan as in the Book of Job. Let’s examine that single passage: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity…” (Hab 1:13). First off, some say that God does not have eyes. Jesus Is God’s eyes, flesh, speech, hearing, and even tasting; and no telling what other senses! However, does that passage mean exactly “eyes?” I believe in this context that it is His countenance which cannot “experience” iniquity (sin). His “eyes” in that case is His countenance (Strong’s Dictionary). Thusly, Holy Spirit cannot co-exist with unholy evil within the soul. Like the uterus, the soul is a place for sanctuary from the evil of the world if it is imbued with the Spirit. Like the uterus, the Spirit grows within the soul. That is the process of sanctification, or cleansing the soul of waste.

I use the word “imbued” rather than “filled” because pletho in the Greek (Acts 2:4) also means “supplied.” Just as the placenta supplies the needs to the gestating baby, protects it, and expels waste, the soul does the same for its contents. Christians can still sin, but since it is covered by Jesus’s blood, then the Spirit of God expels the sin and keeps the soul clean! That is by grace as God does not want to behold sin.

  Jesus is THE person of God with senses and personality. Jesus’s Mind is a substance of God and the Holy Spirit is the Power of God. Spirit is a supernatural (beyond natural ) essence (ultimate nature, i.e., belonging to God). That leaves the Holy Ghost. That is a disembodied soul. Specifically, The Holy Ghost is Jesus’s disembodied soul whose essence is his Spirit which experienced the pangs of death with God’s Flesh on the cross (Mark 15:37). The transition from Spirit to Ghost occurred at Jesus’s death (John 7:39; KJV specifically).

  Jesus has a soul, and the Spirit of God resides in his soul. Inside God’s Flesh, somewhere inside Jesus was his soul. Within his soul, God’s Spirit resided. As God is omnipresent, then with His Flesh in Heaven, Jesus’s Holy Ghost resides within the souls of Christians. Regeneration is the soul returning to its original generated condition, just as it was in Paradise before sin entered into it.

The other “thing” that can be in the soul is “nothing.” Before a child is conceived the contents of the placenta is nothing. Just as the void in which living souls were incubated, the soul can be empty. When Adam was created, his soul was empty until God breathed His Spirit into it! Life fills inner space, the placenta, and empty souls. God authors the contents of space, the womb, and the soul.

God is ultimate good. Jesus’s soul was filled with the Spirit of God. Not just supplied or imbued, but filled all the way because he is without sin. On the other hand, Satan is the ultimate evil. Satan imbued or supplied the soul of Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3) just as he did to the Serpent back under his tree in the Garden of Eden. Satan, however, unlike God, cannot reside in the souls of men. However, evil can!

  Satan has a spirit as well, and it is evil and unholy. Those who he masters has the spirit of evil within their souls. For some, demons reside within their souls. Don’t forget, the soul is not holy or unholy; but its contents are (Mark 5:8-9). It seems that demons within the souls of men are reserved for those who have cognitive dissonance and cannot decide which master to serve! Demons seem to be used for persuading those under conviction that they are helpless because of the power of Satan. Demons cannot enter people with faith in God because there is a hedge of safety about them, but they can taunt holy men and women, and apparently enter the souls of unrighteous people who God calls.

Now for the key verses:

But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him (1 Sam 16:14)… And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. (1 Samuel 16:23)… And Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul. (1 Sam 18:22). And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? (1 Sam 28:15-16)

  The Holy Spirit departed from Saul, of course not because God forsook him (Heb 13:5), but Saul forsook God! Afterwards the Holy Spirit departed, and an evil spirit entered. Saul was “refreshed” which surely meant the evil spirit departed, but it seems that God did not re-enter Saul because that would bring shame to God: “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Heb 6:6). It appears that Saul was left with an empty soul. Indeed, he was “troubled.” Many seemingly “good” people are troubled although they may no have an evil spirit. Of course, they still sin, as children are wont to do, but they are not yet inherently evil because God protects for a time those he calls, obviously to provide time for them to be persuaded.

  After a period, evil again entered Saul although he had moments of contrition wherein God was giving him multiple chances. His evil showed when he killed all the prophets but one! Saul seemed to repent, but many believe it was a false repentance. He actually delved into sin more deeply when he had the false spirit of Samuel conjured. Saul only “perceived” that it was Samuel. Any contrition made was to a demon. Some believe that the apparition was actually Samuel, but God had forbidden that. I contend that it was a demon to whom Saul turned for contrition! (I have written before on that topic in this blog.)

  People are in danger in the uterus unless protected. They are naturally protected by the Lord via the placenta. If the unborn child is killed by intrusion, the placenta is expelled. If the child is born it is also expelled. Likewise, if the soul is emptied when someone is reborn but aborts God’s Will, then the soul has no utility, and there is danger that evil will enter into the vacancy. Reprobate is when the soul becomes so filled with evil that life is forfeited. Unfortunately, that is eternal life which is forfeited.