Part 3 - The “Spirit of Man”

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called The Mystery of Man & His Search.

Now we will consider the “Spirit of Man” in our study of “The Mystery of Man & His Search.”

We must understand that basically, man is a ‘spirit-being’ encased in a physical body for human experience.

In order to fathom ‘the mystery of man,’ we must go beyond the physical realm, and also beyond man’s inward soul’s psychological realm … to man’s “innermost” being. The key to solving the mystery of man’ is his unique third organ, which the Bible calls “the spirit of man within him.”

“…  saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth The Spirit of Man within him.” (Zech. 12:1)

From the above verse we should note man’s centrality in God’s creation that here ranks the formation of “the spirit of man only after creation “the heavens” and “the earth” under which and upon which man dwells in his human life. From this alone we can assume that the “spirit of man” is fundamental to God’s Purposes and Plan for in His entire creation.

The “spirit of man” is the third and most vital part of an individual person since the spirit [Gk. pneuma, breath]” Adam received of God’s breath energized his human life in every way. With one in-breathing of the “spirit of man” Adam became fully animated mankind’s spirit, that stimulated his soul and animated his body.

“And the Lord God formed man [physically] of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [Heb. ruach, spirit] of life; and [simultaneously] man became a living soul [Heb. neshamah].” (Genesis 2:7)

Hidden and obscured, there is this third organ of man’s “spirit” with its unique faculties located deepest within man, deeper than his soul. The “spirit of man” has remained a mystery to most people throughout all the ages, but Daniel gives us its precise location.

 “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst [middle] of my body….” (Daniel 7:15)

While our decaying and dying body is “outer the soul is the inward man,” but the spirit of manis innermost.”

“For which cause we faint not; but though our Outward Man [of the body] perish, yet the Inward man [of the soul] is [to be] renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)

“May He [the Lord] grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the Inner man [of the soul] BY the Spirit [Himself indwelling your Innermost being, your spirit of man…]. Ephesians 3:16 (AMP, with emphasis)

This understanding then leads us to the Source and Answer to every seeker’s search forreality, truth, and satisfaction that yields rest for the troubled soul, but there still is a missing element.

The “spirit of man within him” [Zech. 12:1] is the organ located separate from and deeper within man than the senses of the soul of man, beyond man’s mind and natural understanding.

By our self we could never find it. We could sit for hours in the sun, shade or darkness to meditate, ponder, clear our mind of every thought, try to recollect the past, consider the future, concentrate, open up, try to be enlightened, and still we wouldn’t find it. That’s because the key to man is deeper than our physical senses and our soul’s senses.

Thus, man is Tri-part in his make-up of spirit, soul and body. Paul as the “Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), confirms this;

“I (Paul) pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless...” (1 Thes. 5:23)

Note in this verse (above) the order of spirit and soul and body,” suggesting that which is foremost in man’s being is his “spirit of man.”

There is great misconception about the distinction between the soul of man and the “spirit of manin the world today, especially in the confused world of denominational religion. The Bible makes clear that there is a very great difference in the purpose and function of the soul of man and that of the spirit of man

“The spirit of man is the candle [light] of the LORD, searching all the ‘inward parts’ of the belly [i.e., the inward man of the soul].” (Proverbs 20:27, KJV with emphasis added)

I’ve already said the “spirit of man” is hid deep in man. This is just as the physical life-giving marrow, as the source of the physical life-blood, is twice hidden, 1) by flesh, and 2) by the bone. There is hid within the body and deeper than the soul of man that deeper third part of man’s being, it is the human “spirit of man.” The human spirit is so close to the soul, so encased by the soul, that it is often mistaken for the soul. Yet, it is not the soul… it is “the spirit of man.”

Job 32:8 “But there is a spirit in man:” …

Zechariah 12:1b “God who formeth…the spirit of man within him…”

Hebrews 4:12 “[The word of God] dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow…”

So, what is it that drives us from within?

As stated earlier, again and again comes the inner yearning, a restlessness driven by a hunger for fulfillment. It is a desire that emanates from our Unfulfilled Human Spirit, gnawing at us, desiring to be filled.

You see man was created with an incomplete “spirit of man” intended to be the precise receptacle for the resurrected “Spirit if life in Christ Jesus.” So long as “the spirit of man” remains incomplete there is dissatisfaction, still generating the desire and hunger to be satisfied.