This article explores the intricate systemic design of the mind, body and spirit. Each entity serves a unique purpose and and all three components were intricately crafted by God to operate in connection with each other.
This exploration also delves into how to nurture the mind, body and spirit to achieve harmony and peace in one’s life by drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus.
1. The Body
God formed Adam’s physical body from the ground, endowing it with five senses – touch, vision, hearing, taste, and smell. These senses allow us to experience and appreciate God’s creations and perceive the external world.
However, these senses should not be used for self-gratification; instead, but be trained and disciplined to be utilized in accordance to God’s will (1 Corinthians 9:27).
1 John 1:1-2 demonstrate how he utilized the senses to become a witness of Jesus Christ. He writes, “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our on eyes and touched him with our own hands.”
In this scenario, three of the five senses were engaged, sight, touch and hearing.
2. The Mind
The mind plays a crucial role in decision-making, as our actions reflect our state of mind. Our physical senses provide stimuli to the mind which then determines the proceeding reaction or response.
In the story of Eve, she first heard the serpent’s words, then saw the appealing tree and fruit (Genesis 3:6). External stimuli reached her senses, prompting her mind to engage, leading to her subsequent actions based on her decisions.
3. The Spirit
The spiritual element of our being is housed in the body where the mind also reside. Collectively, the mind, body and spirit make up an individual.
God breathed into Adam and he became a living being. Therefore, according to God, to become a living being is to have the Spirit of God within.
Continuing the story of Eve, she told the serpent in Genesis 3:2, “God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” Yet the body, through the sense of hearing, received information from the serpent that “you will not die”.
Additionally, the body through the sense of vision saw the tree as good and it saw the fruit at delicious. Thereafter, Eve tasted the fruit demonstrating that another physical sense of taste had been engaged.
This highlights a conflict between the word of God through the spirit versus the three senses through the body. The spirit receives stimuli from the voice of God whilst the body receives stimuli from any of the 5 physical senses.
These stimuli are processed in the mind and the potency of the stimuli effects the decision making of the mind which subsequently leads to action or no action.
4. Illustrating How The Mind, Body and Spirit Work Together
Adam and Eve faced a mental battle stemming from different stimuli from the body and from the spirit.
These conflicting information caused turmoil in Eve’s the mind and ultimately, the physical stimuli emerged victorious in the battle, influencing the actions taken by both Adam and Eve.
This conflict that occur in the mind was best enunciated by Paul in Romans 7:18-19, “I want to do what is right but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway.”
Below is an illustration of this systemic mechanism between the mind, body and spirit:
We all experience this battle in our minds. Even though we possess the truth from God’s word within our hearts which we have received in our spirit, there is however, another power within us at war with our minds (Romans 7:23).
This power makes us to sin – taking action contrary to the internal stimuli received through the word of God.
5. How the Mind, Body And Spirit Best Work Together
The body brings stimuli contrary to God’s word. This is why when sin entered, it entered through the body. The only information to be processed by the mind should be received from the spirit whose stimuli comes from the word of God.
Being Christ’s follower means that we have crucified the body with its passions and desires so that it does not influence the mind (Galatians 5:24).
How best the mind, body and spirit work together is demonstrated in the diagram below:
We live by and follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and leadership in every facet of our lives (Galatians 5:25). This distinguishes us as children of God, for those who are led by the Spirit of God are His children (Romans 8:14).
Receiving the Spirit of God changes our mindset and effectively changes our bodies which now become a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1-2).
Since sin entered through the body, the body is thus crucified with Christ so that sin may no longer enter the individual. That is how sin loses its power in our lives (Romans 6:6).
Being led by the Spirit yields a life of holiness and righteousness and brings us to have the mind of Christ. 1 Peter 1:13 reads, “So prepare your minds for action and exercise self control.” This demonstrates the decisions made in our minds lead to actions that glorify God through self-control.
Jesus thoughts were God’s thoughts, and similarly when we have the mind of Christ, we live and act according to the will of God which is good, pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2).
6. How to Nurture The Mind, Body And Spirit
6.1 The Spirit
The Spiritual aspect of our being is nurtured through prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), fasting and meditating on the word of God (Joshua 1:8).
Jesus, even as the Son of God, did not neglect these aspects of nurturing the spirit (Mark 1:35), demonstrating how vital it is to nurture our relationship with God so that we can hear His voice and understand His word.
6.2 The Body
The body in its sinful nature has been crucified with Christ and has lost its power over the individual’s mind. When this is so, the body’s physical senses are heightened to discern spiritual things.
The bible give several examples on how Jesus used his physical senses to discern spiritual realities that ultimately brought God the glory. Below are the notable ones:
- The sense of hearing: In Luke 2:46, young Jesus was found in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
- The sense of vision: Jesus saw Nathaniel under a fig tree before Phillip found him. He used his spiritual gift of sight to make people believe in him as the Son of God (John 1:48-49).
- The sense of touch: Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man with leprosy in Mark 1:41 and was healed instantly. He used his physical sense of touch to demonstrate the healing power of God over a man ailed with a contagious disease.
- The sense of taste: When Jesus was hung on the cross, Matthew 27:34 reads, “The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.” The wine was meant to numb the pain, but he refused to drink after tasting, because he wanted to feel all the pain meant for all humanity. Proverbs 31:6 reads, “Alcohol is for the dying, and wine for those in bitter distress.” Jesus, besides being in agony, distress and a moment before death, chose to suffer and bear all the pain for humanity’s sake so that we may be freed from punishment.
- The sense of smell: When Jesus was at the home of Simon, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head. The fragrance of the perfume brought attention to him and the woman that he took the opportunity to give a prophetic word about his body dying and to forgive the woman of her sins.
The utilization of the five senses mentioned above share a common aspect:
Jesus used his five senses selflessly. Nowhere did he use them for personal gain, but rather to promote forgiveness, healing, solidify belief in him as the Son of God, and to endure the suffering intended for humanity.
6.3 The Mind
Nurturing the Spirit is tantamount to nurturing the mind. This makes nurturing the Spirit a top priority which leads to the mind being controlled by the Spirit.
Jesus mentioned this in John 6:38, “I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.” This means that all his actions were completely influenced by God. And now we have the mind of Christ which equips us to do his will (Hebrews 13:21).
Additionally, Romans 12:2 reads,
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s.
Therefore, the mind functions as the decision engine that prompts what actions to take. Romans 8:6 reads, “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”
Since God encourages us to choose life and not death in Deuteronomy 30:19, therefore we should choose to let the Spirit control our minds which leads to life.
7. Final Remarks
This article sought to demonstrate the intricate design of the individual which comprise of the mind, body and spirit.
A deeper look into the life of Jesus reveal that the our physical senses where designed by God for us to witness the nature of God through Jesus Christ.
The spiritual element of our being is led by the voice and word of God that manifested into actions of holiness and righteousness.
You have observed very interesting points! ps decent website.