156 6. Our spirits are our minds and whatever comes from them.Our
“spirit” really means nothing else but our mind. Our mind is what lives
on after death. It is then called a spirit. If it is good, it is called an angelic
spirit and later on an angel. If it is evil, it is called a satanic spirit and later
on a satan. For each one of us, our mind is our inner self, our true self. It
lives inside our outer self that constitutes our body. When our body is
cast aside, which death does for us, we are in a complete human form.
People are wrong, then, to believe that our mind exists only in our
head. Our mind is present in our head only in its primary structures.
Everything that we think with our intellect and do from our will first
emanates from these primary structures. In the rest of our body, our
mind is present in extensions of these primary structures that have been
designed to allow us sensation and action. Because our mind is inwardly
connected to the parts of our body, our mind supplies those parts with
sensation and motion and also inspires awareness as if our body thought
and acted on its own, although every wise person knows this is not how
it is.
Now, because our spirit thinks with its intellect and acts with its will,
and our body thinks and acts not on its own but with the help of our
spirit, it follows that our “spirit” means our intelligence and our type of
love, as well as whatever emanates from our love and intelligence and has
an effect.
Many passages in the Word make clear that our “spirit” means the
nature of our mind. When I quote only a few of these passages, anyone
will be able to see that this is exactly what “spirit” means. The following
are just a few of the many:
And Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of wisdom, intelligence, and
knowledge. (Exodus 31 : 3 )
Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel that there was “an excellent spirit” of
knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom in him (Daniel 5 : 12 ).
Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom. (Deuteronomy 34 : 9 )
Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezekiel 18 : 31 )
Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of the heavens con-
sists of such people. (Matthew 5 : 3 )
I live among people with a beaten and humble spirit so that I may
revive the spirit of the lowly. (Isaiah 57 : 15 )
singke
(singke)
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