dividing soul and spirit..

‎"The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)...

What a great passage!.. it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.. separating what is in our heart from what is in our conscience.. an accurate picture of the warring that goes on inside of us when we wrestle with sin and temptation..

that is why it is so dangerous to judge the appearance of things because you may be judging what is in the soul (the mind, the flesh, the reflex response to the initial attack which is seldom accurate as to who the person truly is, or how they might choose to change as things play out)...

while the person is fighting with every thing in them to yield to their spirit (the conscience, the CHOICE they are truly making despite the appearance of things or their initial reaction).. Only God can see the whole picture..

that's why we are not to judge.. the separating of soul and spirit is a process.. the true state of their heart and their choices at any given moment is what God is waiting on. There is a time to be patient.. and there is a time to judge.. but all things must involve seeking God and waiting on his timing.

Moses was at first a coward, trying to get out of what God was asking him to do, to lead his ppl out of Egypt.. he was looking at the appearance of things and judging with his head and his thoughts, his soul.. but after the wrestling, after conversing with God, the Words of God convinced him otherwise and his conscience won out, he chose to go with what was ringing in his spirit, the Word of God.

The same example is seen with Gideon, and with countless others in the Scripture and in the world around us. God speaks, ppl hear his Word, they react with their soul, their thoughts, their flesh and physical man.. but then as the Word rings in their being, it separates the soul and the spirit and they must make a choice which they will submit to, which they will embrace as truth, which they will actively respond to.

Nothing else has that power, nothing else can affect a person in those deep places.. only the Word of God.. it is not to be taken lightly or to be minimized as tho it is merely just another opinion we are to glean from, tossing out what doesn't appeal to us. It is truth in it's entirety.. not all truth, but all we need to live this life on earth until Christ returns.. Then he will share all things as necessary.

It can be sharp, it can cut deep, but always with love and goodness and always to bring life as it conquers death <3