Holy Spirit in Worship

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Body, Soul & Spirit

What the Holy Spirit does within us.

This is the first part in a series of studies that we will carry out regarding the importance of the Holy Spirit in our ministri and also in our lives. My intention is to bring to all of us a basic knowledge about who the person of the Holy Spirit is, what work He has done in our lives and the importance of relating to Him.

Are you prepared? So let’s dive into it!

When God created us, the Bible reports that He said: “Let us make man in our likeness”, and just as our God is three in one (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), He also divided us into three parts according to what the apostle Paul writes in the 1st letter to the Thessalonians 5:23

1 Thessalonians 5:23 – And may the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, according to this text we are also three in one like our God, cool isn’t it?
This division mentioned by Apostle Paul makes us reflect on the idea that we are:

  • BODY
  • SOUL
  • SPIRIT

My intention here is to share with you the importance that these parts “body, soul and spirit” have in our lives and in our ministry.

Our Soul and our Mind are the same thing. The Soul is the invisible part of the Mind and the Mind is the visible part of the Soul. I’ll simplify this later, don’t be discouraged, keep reading!

BODY

The BODY is our physical and visible part where we relate to the external world. The body allows us to feel things around us, and through our senses, such as Sight, Taste, Smell, and Touch, we introduce external information into our mind.
The Bible says:

Luke 11:34 “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, “your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, “your body also is full of darkness. “

According to my biblical knowledge, the word “Light” almost always refers to “Knowledge” and the word “Darkness” refers to “Lack of Knowledge”. 
The devil always works in “darkness” because it is in the lack of knowledge of who God is in people’s lives that the enemy acts. Therefore, light is the knowledge of God’s will for our lives that gives us victory over the devil. 

John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I don’t want to complicate the understanding of what the BODY means to us, because it’s very simple, it’s the way we have to relate to the visible, physical world. That’s simple.

SOUL / MIND

To understand the importance of our SOUL, we need to understand first that God gives us the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and then the Holy Spirit influences our mind and our soul in what we think, believe, and decide. By receiving Jesus into our life, we receive life and life in abundance, and through the Holy Spirit we receive the essence, the portion, the person of God in our life, and it will be He who will do the work of “restoring” what sin destroyed.

When man broke his relationship with God, due to sin, he began to experience feelings that he had never felt until then, such as insecurity, fear, anger, guilt, hatred, and so on…  These feelings are disturbances caused in his mind, in his brain.

We live in a world fallen by sin, and because we lived in it before we had an encounter with Jesus, we also have areas in our mind that need to be restored, and believe me, there can be no restoration of our SOUL or MIND without the intervention of the Holy Spirit.  The more we listen to His voice and obey, the less captive we become of our feelings and desires.

Another point that we need to understand is that in the same way that the Holy Spirit influences us, our MIND or SOUL also influences us. It’s common to see some people talk to themselves. King David did this:

Salmos 42:5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 

It is common to find ourselves in situations where we are fighting against our own mind, which almost all the time reflects the desires of our flesh, but something inside us fights in the opposite direction. When our mind says: “Fight with that person!” something or someone inside us tells us: “Don’t do that, let it go…”, this is a very simple example but I bet you’ve been through moments where your mind wanted to take you one place but you fought to go in another direction.

That’s why we see King David talking to his “Soul” and I confess to you that I talk to mine all the time, I always say words like: “Paulo, God is in control, everything will be fine…”, “Paulo, it’s just a challenge in life, many go through worse things, God will be with you all the time…”. And as incredible as it may seem, my soul calms down and becomes more confident. Of course, this is not a magic formula, it requires exercise!

In fact, I am destroying barriers of depression inside my mind, replacing words of defeat with words of victory proclaiming the Word of God so that your soul can be restored by the truth. The word of God is the most powerful weapon we have to deal with this mental and spiritual battle, which is why we need to always be reading the Bible and memorizing some key verses for our battle.

Our brain is the only organ in our body that is “self-aware”, it controls everything in our body and therefore it brings both positive and negative influences to our SOUL, it leads us to make both right and wrong decisions.

What is the difference between SOUL and MIND?
Well, in reality there is none, because our mind is the physical part of our soul. Soul and Mind walk together, both are the center of our emotions. So when I talk about SOUL, I will also be referring to the Mind, ok?

As we can see, our “Soul” has enormous power over us and can affect our “Body”, causing serious illnesses that are called Psychosomatic.
The apostle Paul talks about this struggle within himself.

Romanos 7:19  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do —this I keep on doing. 

Psychosomatic diseases are conditions in which psychological factors like stress, emotions, and behaviors significantly influence the development, progression, or outcome of physical ailments. The term “psychosomatic” reflects the mind-body connection, implying that the mind (psyche) can affect the body (soma) in a way that can manifest as physical symptoms or illnesses.

Life has left many marks on our “Soul”, especially when we experience pain and suffering. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit to act in our lives because only He can restore the evil that was caused within us.

 This way we will be happier people and prepared to face the challenges of everyday life.

Our ministry will become fuller of the presence and perfume that the Holy Spirit leaves in our lives when he has the freedom to act in our “Soul”.

Holy Spirit is without a doubt the most important person on the face of this earth for us. If you maintain a daily relationship with Him you will discover that He is kind, loving and a great counselor who will bring you strength in your weakness and when you least expect it, He will be working in the lives of other people through our lives.

We will be “Restored to Restore” other lives.

And when we have a worship filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, this worship will bring healing to those wounded in the “Soul,” it will bring strength to those who are feeling weak, it will bring a thirst for God to the people who are “lukewarm” in relation to Jesus, and all this ends up leading to a great “revival” in the church.

SPIRIT

Genesis 2:7 “Then the LORD God formed a man “from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. “

We can learn something very precious to us here.

The Hebrew term רוּחַ (ruah or ruach – Greek pneuma), usually translated as “spirit” in the most well-known biblical translations, literally means “wind”, “blowing” or “breath”. Ruah, it’s air in motion.

The Holy Spirit is called in Hebrew “Ruah Kadosh“.

  • Ruah which means “wind, breath, moving air”.
  • Kadosh meaning “Holy”.

When God breathed His Spirit into us, the Bible says that man became a “living Soul”, man’s spirit was created at that moment and the Spirit of God was connected with man’s spirit.

Our “Spirit” is the part where we have our connection with God, it is where we perceive the presence and voice of God within us.

When Adam disobeyed God, this connection was broken, sin separated man from God, because God is Holy and cannot share in sin. But because God loved the world in such a way, He sent His son Jesus to pay the ransom price for what had been lost because of Adam’s sin and that is why everyone who receives Jesus as their lord and savior has that connection restored and they become new creatures and the Holy Spirit begins to dwell in us and the restoration process begins!

A full person is a person who has Body, Soul, and Spirit restored and these three parts are interdependent on each other.

Every “Spiritual Battle” takes place at the “Soul or Mind” level, because if the devil has control of your “Mind” he will have control of your “Body” and will affect your relationship with God, influencing your “Spirit” through revolts, sadness, dissatisfaction, and other strategic feelings used by the kingdom of darkness to separate us from God, our creator.

I want to end this study by leaving some challenges for us!

We can understand that our “Soul / Mind” needs to be taken care of by us, everything you put into your Mind will compromise for good or bad on a BODY level and also on a SPIRITUAL level.

A healthy mind is a mind that needs:

  • Have a daily relationship with God through the Holy Spirit
  • You need to fast from time to time so that you can gain victory in areas where you are having difficulty winning. Remember, fasting is giving your spirit strength to face the daily battle that takes place in your “Mind or Soul”.
  • Read the word of God every week and memorize some verses that you can declare when you are praying for yourself.
  • One of the most important things for someone who has a calling to worship God is to spend time in the presence of God, put on some music and prostrate yourself in your room for a few minutes and let the Holy Spirit lead you in worship. What we do on stage needs to be a continuation of what we have with the Lord in our privacy, in our room or in any place where you can be without distractions and alone with God.

If we can do this, I guarantee that the anointing of God’s Spirit will come upon us when we minister in church and wonderful things will happen.

 

Paulo Vila Nova