From BobHamp.com

“Watch, I’ll show you what I’m made of.” We say this when we want to show others our strength or capabilities. Wouldn’t it be cool to figure out what we are really made of? And I don’t mean like skin and bones. I mean how we are put together.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

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

In the Bible we find an account of the creation of man that can be really helpful in figuring out the make-up of our being: “God formed the man from the dust of the ground.”

• God formed a physical structure which had no life in and of itself. “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
• The Spirit of Life, the Spirit or breath of God entered the inanimate form
• The man became a living being…( a self or a soul)
• The man became an independent entity, still containing the breath of life, the Spirit of God.

Man became a physical form, made to be an independent being (a soul), containing the breath of God. What made the man who he was came from the fact that he was born from the breath of God.

Living from this center, from the Breath of God, meant that through his physical self, God Himself was empowering Adams life.

When Adam sinned, it was the Breath that left him. The “self” remained, but it was disconnected. A soul without the Spirit. While the spirit had been the way the man connected to God and the spiritual realm, the soul was how the man interacted with his natural environment. Without the Spirit his mind, his will, and his emotions, became his source of power, and source of truth.

When we are “born again” it is this Spirit which is birthed in us, or gives us birth from the Heavens (spiritual realm).

Once the Spirit of God is re-established in us, we are still faced moment by moment with the exercise of the will as to whether we will live from the Spirit within us, or whether we will live out of our soul.

Living by the Knowledge of Good and Evil still has us living from the soul, our disconnected self. Knowing God, the Tree of Life, restores a power source, greater than us.

Thinking from the mind, will and emotions is different than tapping into the Spirit of God and having your mind renewed. This is the kind of “thinking differently” we are after.

From BobHamp.com

Often the greatest obstacle to a life of true freedom is our own misunderstanding of what freedom is.  

We see our lives from behind the bars–the habit, the heaviness, the fear, the thoughts that won’t go away–all the things that hold us prisoner.  In some ways we blame others; if only they would stop, or change, or agree, we convince ourselves this would set us free.  When we look past the role these people play, we see our own obstacles.  This is where the trap lies… surely if we remove the obstacles we will be free, right?  This is important: if we have it wrong, we may invest a lot of time (maybe a lifetime) in pursuit of our picture of freedom. 

Because my habits, thoughts or circumstances seem to be the obstacle to freedom, we believe whole-heartedly, the removal of these obstacles will surely set us free.

Answer this question: is it possible to be disease-free, and still not be healthy?  Of course it is. In the same way, it is possible to remove all the obstacles and still not be free.

Imagine for a moment that you were created a certain way with a certain destiny.  Imagine further, you stop drinking, overcome the anxiety, get your marriage where you want it to be, but you are still living a life other than the one you were created for.  You are still trying to be someone other than who you were made to be.  No more “obstacles”, but still not free.

Now picture this.  Your circumstances, however frustrating remain exactly the same.  You, however, begin to lay ahold of something that no one else can take away; the blueprint for your soul, connected to the Creator.  In the face of the worst the world has to throw at you, you begin to become the person you were made to be.  And no one, nothing can stop you.  The terrible things done to you, begin to lose their power over you.  People and their actions no longer bend your heart towards anger.  Your own possessions no longer possess you.  

Instead of pursuing the removal of obstacles we surrender to the pursuit of the One who made us and loves us, with an everlasting love.   

“In this world, you will have trouble” Jesus said, “but take heart, I have overcome the world.”  Let Him overcome you.fr