Soul Man

In the days we live in God is dealing with our soul man. Yes, He is also dealing with our spirit, but most men and women live in their soul, their will, mind, and emotions.

The heart of man is defined in scripture as the mind and emotions. God's heart is that these two might be in balance. In most of us, one or the other rules us most of the time. There are those who feel the emotions are evil and that we should try to eradicate them. This is imbalance.

There are others who are ruled fully by how they "feel", their emotions. This is also imbalanced.

It came to me the other day that we do not truly know balance. Man was balanced before he fell. When he fell, he lost his balance and understanding of it. Only God can teach us what balance is. If we will depend on the Spirit of God, He can bring us back to balance. It takes a revelation from on high to know true balance.

The will, in a sense, is the arbitrator of decision. There are times when the mind prevails. At other times the emotions short circuit the process and over-rides the rational of the mind causing the decision to be made with only emotional imput. Again, this causes an imbalanced decision.

Dr. Colman of Harvard University, some years ago wrote a book called "Emotional Intelligence". In it he talks about the emotions ability to override the decision making process. It undergirds something I felt God say before the book came out. It had to do with the effect of a wounded spirit on our decision making process. Often that emotional override comes out of an unhealed wound in either the soul or the spirit.

We will be making comment on this in later writings, but, for now it is important to at least expose us to the teaching on the wounded soul. Our soul can be wounded through childhood events in which there has been abandonment by parents, friends, or vital influencial relationships in our lives.

These wounds, if not dealt with and healed, become infected with rejection, abandonment, and possibly even bitterness. In intense situations, these emotional infections can override all rational and cause us to make wrong decisions based on the emotional infection, rather than the real facts of the situation.

How do I know when that happens? I know when this may be a factor is, when my reaction is far greater than the situation.

Question for pondering: Can I think of any time that this could have been the case in my life?

Dr. Bill