What is a Spirit?

I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer, Job 20:3.

The King James Bible defines itself. It is rarely friendly to a set of theological beliefs. If you come to the bible with a predetermined set of beliefs, and you are careful and diligent, you can always string together a set of verses that justify your predetermined belief. Just saying that you believe the King James Bible is not enough.

To be approved by God, your understanding of doctrine needs to withstand the challenge of being examined in each supporting verse's context, and it needs to be able stand when examined by verses that appear to contradict it.

To a Jehovah Witness, 1st Corinthians 15:50 will trump any verse in any context; Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

He was taught that Jesus Christ resurrected as a gas. 1st Corinthians 15:50 is his proof verse. No matter how many verses that you can show him, each in their proper context proving that God really does resurrect physical bodies, he will cut that verse out and hold it so close to his eyes that he cannot see any other verse.

By the way, Jesus did not resurrect as flesh and blood, he resurrected as flesh and bone. His blood is in a bason in heaven. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have, Luke 24:39.

I used a simple illustration with my children. I would show them a penny and then ask them, "which one is bigger, our house or this penny?". After they correctly chose the house, I would hold the penny up against my eye and tell them that now the penny is bigger than the house I couldn't see the house because the penny was now too big. Why?, because it is in the wrong place. Doctrine works the same way. Every verse must be in the right place or else it blocks out other verses.

Likewise, the definition of bible words must come from the bible. If you truly want to know what the King James translators meant when they wrote such diverse words as spirit, heart, mind, conscience, or soul, you need to look up each word and look at each word in its context. That is how children learn to understand speech.

When Grandma tells a five year old child that Grandpa is on the davenport, he doesn't run to the dictionary to define davenport. He sees grandpa sitting on a piece of furniture that his parents call a couch or a sofa. He has learned a new word. He now knows that couch, sofa, and davenport are synonymous.

It really is possible to define King James Bible words by examining them in context. Spirit is such a word. Every once in a while, I hear of someone who has been taught that the spirit and the soul are the same. Some professor or book told them that and they become resistant to any verse in the bible which contradict them regardless of the context.

We have a verse that says that the spirit and soul can be separated; For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, Hebrews 4:12. We have a verse wherein the Apostle Paul speaks of the soul and the spirit as two separate things; And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1st Thessalonians 5:23.

What then is a spirit? It is distinct from the soul and distinct from the heart. For a moment, I want you to picture your computer. You can see what is active on your computer by looking at the screen. Deep in the files of your computer are such diverse things as your finances, your emails, your pictures, and just about anything else that you have stored there. Additionally, you can access the internet and search out almost anything.

How do you know what you are about to choose for viewing? You have a cursor on your screen, usually in the shape of an arrow. You use your mouse or a pad to maneuver that arrow onto the subject that you want to see. Your will directs the arrow, the arrow selects the subject. Your will then clicks on the subject, and that subject fills your screen.

Likewise, your memory, your imagination, and your current surroundings offer many things on which you can concentrate. Your will will direct your spirit to highlight something from your memory, imagination or surroundings. whatever your spirit (as the cursor) lights upon as directed by your will, will fill your thoughts.

You might be attending a lecture on the architecture in the 13th century, you might grow bored and let your mind wander to last night's dinner. It is your spirit that left the current lecture and clicked on your dinner. As the speaker drones on, you might be wondering how to keep the meat from drying out the next time you cook.

There can be more than one spirit active in a person. A person with an unclean spirit will have that spirit search their memories or imagination to find vile or unclean constructions to whatever they hear or see. A person with a broken spirit has lost control of what they think. The Spirit of God in a person will bring back memories or bible verses to guide them or to reassure them.

A spirit does not implant thoughts, it works with existing thoughts or memories. It highlights them. For an English Speaking person, the language of the Spirit of God are the words of a King James Bible. [T]he spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, Ephesians 2:2, will use every ploy on this earth whether it be false bibles, false science, peer pressure, or lusts to make that person disobey God.

A spirit is something tangible. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also, James 2:26. When a person's spirit leaves their body, they are physically dead.

My students have been directed to look up every time the word "spirit" is used in their King James Bible (505 times as a singular word). They are to make their own notebooks wherein they have noted each and every occurrence of each title of the word spirit. The Spirit of God with an uppercase "S" is to be listed separately from the spirit of God with a lowercase "s".

Some titles such as "the spirit of Egypt" are only mentioned once, some are mentioned a few times, a few are mentioned often. They now have a reference tool to use throughout their lives. The challenge for them is to look at each instance and understand who is at work and how.

In your King James Bible, a person is a body, a soul, and a spirit. A ghost is a spirit and a soul together. A spirit a soul and a body are distinctly different things, each defined in their individual contexts throughout the scope of the bible.