Do you know who you are? Do you have questions about what makes us human? Have you ever considered your makeup? Do you understand how thoughts move between each part of you?
This post is a 28-minute read.
Scripture tells us that we are composed of a Body, Soul, and Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “…May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete…”
This is the “theory of trichotomy”. Trichotomy means “division into three parts, elements, or classes”. The theory breaks the human being down into three distinct parts: body, soul, and spirit.
The physical body consists of the skeleton, muscles, skin, internal organs, the brain, and everything else that supports life.
Zechariah 12:1 says: “Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him…”
This verse indicates that the whole, complete human being has a spirit formed within them. Our bodies house our spirits. We are, in fact, spiritual beings temporarily housed in a physical body. More on this below.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “…Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.“
The passage above indicates that the human body can also house God’s Holy Spirit.
How The Parts of a Human Being Work Together — The Trichotomy Theory
In the diagram above, the outer circle (gold) represents our physical body. The innermost circle (represented by the heavens) is the core or heart of us and represents our spirit being. When a Christian says “heart and mind,” they mean the mind and spirit. The soul and spirit are connected.
Notice also that a middle ring labeled “Soul” lies between the Body and Spirit. The mind, will, and emotions make up the soul. It has no body and is therefore not material. It is the active, yet non-material part of us that we can detect. We can only touch it through what we “feel” physically, our interactions with others, or our interactions with our spirits.
We store information from either our bodies or our spirits in our minds, wills, or emotions. Information flows into our minds, wills, and emotions within our souls. Information flows into our bodies from our souls. For example, the soul experiences grief, which manifests in our physical bodies as crying and tears. We can also feel grief in our spirit. For example, thoughts in our minds can enter our spirits as prayers to help us deal with grief.
The Conscience
Your spirit has your conscience. Conscience is “the sense of the moral goodness or worthiness of one’s own conduct and intentions.” The desire to do right and be good is in the conscience.
Of course, if you’re not following God’s teaching and commands, your sense of these things is subjective.
Your conscience can be deprogrammed and reprogrammed to take on a different nature.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 says: “...The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron...”
Denaturing (searing) your conscience is not a good thing! But repentance can restore it, and that’s the good news.
Your Heart (Inner Being) Can Also House God’s Holy Spirit
If you are spiritually alive, your heart also houses God’s Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” God’s Spirit can actually dwell inside you. That aspect of God is “The Holy Spirit”.
John 14:16–17 says, “Jesus promises to give another ‘Helper’ (or Counselor) who will stay with believers forever and live inside them.” That “Helper/Counselor” is the Holy Spirit of God Himself!
John 14:26 says, “The Counselor (the Holy Spirit sent by the Father) will teach you all things and remind you of Jesus’ words.“
John 15:26 says, “The Spirit of truth comes from the Father to bear witness about Jesus...”
God’s Holy Spirit converses and fellowships with our spirit within us if we are “Born-Again Christians.”
What It Means to Be Born Again
The term Christian simply means “one who follows Jesus Christ”. Many people call themselves Christians. But only those who have given over their complete lives and completely obey Jesus are truly following Him.
Jesus introduced us to the concept and term “Born Again”. Some Christians use it as a label for themselves to distinguish themselves from other groups. Jesus, in John 3:3, tells Nicodemus (a Pharisee): “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.“
John 3:5–6 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.“
Jesus used the term “Kingdom of God” to indicate heaven, where God lives.
In Hebrew culture, repeating the word “truly” signals that what follows is very important—even more important than surrounding teachings.
Jesus teaches that we are born of water (physical birth), the first birth. And when we receive Jesus as our Savior, we are born of the Spirit, the second birth. So we are “born again” in that way.
How Information Flows Within a Human Being
Notice in the illustration above that white arrows connect the three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Also, arrows go between the three parts of the soul. The arrows show how thoughts, ideas, emotions, desires, etc., flow among the body, soul, and spirit.
For example, our physical senses communicate to our souls (where our minds are) through touch, taste, smell, vision, and sound. Our minds take that information, make sense of it, and we conceptualize what our bodies are sensing in our minds. We see a mountain forest, and our minds interpret that as a mountain forest. We hear a concert, and our minds interpret that as music, etc.
Our minds can form an idea, communicate it to our will, and we carry it out. Or we avoid it if we sense it isn’t good. Or our body experiences pain (emotional, physical or both), and our minds conceptualize it. The mind communicates to our emotions and will, and we try to stop it.
If your spirit is “alive”, thoughts come up from your spirit into your mind, will, and emotions…your Soul as well.
We Are Eternal Beings
Our spirits are eternal. They can’t perish. So spiritual death is different than physical death, where the physical body ceases to function and perishes. “Spiritual life” means your spirit has awakened to the spiritual aspect and the realities of the spirit realm. Spiritual death refers to someone who has physically perished without salvation.
Death in the spirit comes about by rejecting God and determining that you don’t want to dwell with Him in eternity.
That is essentially the purpose of this temporary physical life…to prove to ourselves whether we accept God or reject Him. God already knows us intimately. He knows our ultimate decision about Him.
This life is to build a testimony about whether we accept or reject God. We can’t deny our true hearts. When God asks us if we accept or reject Him, He already knows the truth. Our lives demonstrate either rejection or acceptance of God. Our rejection is undeniable because our lives testify to the facts. Or conversely, we have a testamony that shows we accepted Him. The ramifications of this are a whole other conversation for another time.
The Voices In Your Mind
1 Corinthians 2:11 says, “…Who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?“
When you think or pray silently, you hear your own voice in your mind. But did you know your voice isn’t the only one you can hear in your mind?
We are all familiar with remembering things others have said to us. Maybe you recall a teacher’s lesson, or something a dear loved one has said to you. Or maybe you became angry recalling something someone said while protesting your views.
These all come from external sources. The red arrows in the illustration above show where others’ words and thoughts come into our minds. They enter our minds through physical hearing and spark our emotions and sometimes our will to act on those thoughts.
But thoughts can also come from the spirit realm. Our conscience might speak to us in our spirits and enter our minds that way. Then our spirits are the voice we hear.
As mentioned earlier, God’s Spirit speaks to us in our spirits. And God can speak to us either while dwelling inside us or from outside of us. That’s when we are hearing the voice of God in our heads.
That’s how the Holy Spirit guides and counsels those of us who are born-again.
External Voices in Our Heads
As you might have anticipated, a third red arrow goes from outside sources directly to our spirit on the diagram.
Lucifer, the fallen angel who took a third of the angels with him, is also called Satan. We also refer to him as a Serpent and “the devil”. He can also speak to us. With the devil are the demons. They include other fallen angels and Nephilim spirits. The Nephilim are hybrid beings from when fallen angels procreate with human women. Their spirits are demonic.
Genesis 6:4 says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days [before Noah’s flood], and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.” The Nephilim bore the nature of their fallen fathers. They were as evil as the devil. And when they passed out of physical life, they joined Satan’s fallen angelic army as demons in rank.
A devil can speak directly to us physically, like the serpent directly spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden. But demons can inhabit an unsaved person and communicate directly with their spirit. They can also speak into circumstances and make us think the thoughts are our own. In all cases, the voice can sound like our own thoughts coming from within.
It is important to weigh each thought and discern the spirit behind it.
Discerning The Voice if it’s From the Devil
You can discern demonic voices even if you’re not “saved”. If you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, His work on the cross saves you from eternal damnation.
Scripture tells us the character and nature of the devil and the demons.
In John 10:10, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” John 8:44 says, ” The devil, who is… “A murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Revelation 12:9 says, “The serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.“
The devil is a thief who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and he is a liar and deceiver. Satan doesn’t want God to be successful in saving lives to dwell with Him in heaven for eternity. He actively tries to dissuade people from following God, even if they don’t know Him. That is his nature and character.
You can be certain that when a person is displaying the character and nature of the devil, they are listening to the devil, even when it sounds like their own thoughts. This can be true of a born-again believer as well—if they live their life apart from God in disobedience. The devil’s motivation is always to prevent people from following God.
ALWAYS Love Your Enemies and Pray For Those Who Persecute You
This is why believers should always “love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us].” (Matthew 5:44). God created human beings in His image (see Genesis 1:26–27). The devil’s vow is to destroy those who would follow God. It is the devil who brings those thoughts into human minds.
ALWAYS pray for the afflicted human beings who attack you. They are under attack themselves. What the devil has them doing leads to eternal damnation, which God never intended for any human being. We should align with God’s will in this respect.
And remember: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” (Proverbs 18:21). If you curse your enemies, you will have enemies. But if you bless your enemies, you will make them allies.
Imagine Heaven and Hell
Scripture invites us to imagine what heaven and hell are like. God gives people “Open Visions”. He also transports people in the spirit to heaven and hell and shows them what those places are like. God has His purposes in doing this. One effect is that these events stimulate us to envision places that exist in higher dimensions.
Scriptural Examples Open Visions and Being Transported in the Spirit
Scripture refers to these things…
The Apostle Paul, in describing heaven, said in 2 Corinthians 12:2–4, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.“
An Example of Visiting Heaven and Hell
Luke 16:19-31, describing hell, says, “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom [in heaven]…”
And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ … between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ “
Jesus Himself spoke about heaven and hell in these two passages. He speaks of hell as a place of eternal torment, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. A place of darkness devoid of His presence. And He revealed to us what these places that exist in higher dimensions are like.
Modern Tools Make it Possible to Spread NDE Testimonies
Modern Tools Make it Possible to Spread NDE Testimonies
With the advent of the internet and YouTube, it has gotten much easier for people to share their out-of-body testimonies. We call these “Near-Death Experiences,” or NDEs. Each of these testimonies describes visits to heaven, hell or both.
One man who saw hell and was returned to his body has studied 1,200 of these NDE experiences. His name is Bill Wiese, and in this interview, he provides many verses in Scripture that testify to what he and others describe about heaven and hell.
NDE Experiences Explained
Most of these testimonies are likely true because they explain the NDE experience after waking up from death. That’s before they had a chance to become aware of others’ NDE experiences. It’s also before they took an interest in knowing about NDEs. Doctors pronounced them all clinically dead, and they remained dead long enough to lose all brainwave activity. X-rays showed the brain stem had died. Their brains could not have stored memories.
Could their brains have tried to make sense of their physical death and subsequent healing by concocting these experiences? Not likely, since many of them didn’t believe in life after death. And why would they all dream the same thing? It doesn’t make sense that the brain would have a hallucination after brain death.
They all returned to their bodies with their brains fully intact and memories of their out-of-body experiences. Doctors have no explanation, and they happen consistently in every case. They have to call these NDEs “miracles” because there is no other explanation. They are real. And they align with experiences Jesus Himself described in Scripture.
You can Google NDE testimonies and see many of them for yourself. It’s interesting, and it definitely spurs your imagination to think about what these places are like.
And most importantly, the ones where people found themselves in hell should be enough to convince you that even your enemies shouldn’t be there, but because of the choices they made in ignorance, they face this horrible specter. They might still end up in hell if they knowingly reject God, but they would have the chance to learn who God really is and why they really want to dwell with Him in eternity. It is always their own choice. Don’t let them make that choice in ignorance.
NDEs stimulate compassion and love, even for your enemies! And that is what God commands us to do—love our enemies and pray for our persecutors.
And the visions of heaven certainly stimulate you to want to dwell there in eternity.
The Dichotomy Theory of Human Composition
Ecclesiastes 12:5-7 says, “…Man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street…then the dust [body] will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”
You Can’t Take It With You!
As the old adage goes, “You can’t take it with you!” referring to physical possessions. Can you picture a hearse with a U-Haul trailer in tow?
The Dichotomy Theory divides human composition into two distinct parts. In this theory, half of our soul is in the conscious, in the realm of things we can detect in the physical, natural world. And half is in the subconscious, that is, in the spiritual, supernatural world.
It’s a matter of how you divide the spirit and the body. With Trichotomy, the soul goes with the spirit. In Dichotomy, half the soul goes with the spirit.
But that’s not entirely the case. We do take some of what we have in the physical with us. When we pass, we take with us our decisions about God and the testimony we have built in our lives about accepting or rejecting God.
Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “…It is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment”.
Judgment Day
Speaking of this judgment, Jesus relates a parable about it.
In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus says this about Judgment Day:
“…When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we [do these things for you]?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
“…He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for [you did none of these things for me]. Then they will answer, ‘Lord, when did we [not do these things for] You?’
Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.“
All the kindnesses the believers practiced or didn’t practice were expressions of love.
Bob Jones’ NDE Experience
Bob Jones, who prefers the term “death experience” because he was clinically dead, recalled his NDE. He ascended to heaven and stood in one of two lines. His line held people destined to speak directly to God. God required them to answer one question: “Did you learn to love?” If they answered that they had learned to love—and no one can lie to the all-knowing God—He allowed them entry into heaven.
The things people worshipped in life—false gods, material objects, or obsessive loves—bound those in the other line. And they were on a conveyor belt up from Sheol (the Hebrew word for hell) to answer the same question. After they revealed that they did not choose God, the conveyor belt sent them back down to hell. They knew their mistake and understood why God punished them.
A book called “Did You Learn to Love?” recounts Bob’s story. Because Bob experienced this in 1975, the publisher no longer prints the book, which never became a bestseller because few people knew about it. I’ve alluded to the fact that we didn’t have Amazon or YouTube in 1975. These stories largely stayed local or circulated only within Christian circles until the internet and tools like Google, Amazon, and YouTube brought them to a global audience.
Hell is a Real Place and Some of Us Will Spend Eternity There
Some of the NDE YouTube interviews describe hell’s torment in some detail. Laurie Ditto’s hell experience describes how every sin you have committed, and every sin everyone else there has committed, waits for them. They share the punishment for every single sin—for eternity!
Hell is a place that is devoid of God’s presence. Since God is the source of light in eternity, hell is a dark place. Many people who visit hell say they can feel the darkness. The only light there comes from fire.
Hell is not a place where you meet up with friends from your physical life and spend eternity partying together. Isolation and loneliness surround you. Heat so intense that it would kill a human being torments you, while demons plague you as well. And you can’t die in hell. Your spirit is eternal.
The largest part of the torment comes from meeting God before He sends you to hell. You experience His overwhelming love surrounding you. Your spirit knows all things immediately upon your physical death. You know God is completely good and completely love, justice, mercy, grace, and all the other characteristics describing Him in Scripture.
Intuitively, you understand that God designed you to dwell in heaven for eternity. You know that God is who you want to spend eternity with. Yet you rejected God and demonstrated through your will and unrepentant actions that you didn’t want to dwell with Him. God sends you to hell—a place devoid of Him—meant for those eternal beings who rejected Him. And it is eternal. And there is no hope at that point. You face an eternity devoid of hope, with only torture and torment.
What God Created Us For
God created us all for fellowship with Him and to worship Him. And those who know His character gladly worship Him. It’s not a chore—it comes from the heart. God built us to do it supernaturally. God doesn’t want any of us to perish, but that all would dwell with Him.
But He gives us the choice to reject or accept Him. For this reason, He gave us an independent will so we could make our own choices without slaving ourselves to His will. It’s why He chooses to stay invisible to us—so He doesn’t interfere with our decisions.
Why would God want to fellowship with puppets or robotic beings He programmed to be His friends? Would you want that? No! It’s an empty, hollow existence.
And when we live out a physical life, we build a testimony about whether we accept or reject Jesus. It’s an elegant way to demonstrate to us, beyond a doubt or argument, who we reject and who we accept in eternity.
About Salvation
Above is a Billy Graham pamphlet that has “The Sinner’s Prayer” on it. This is a good place to start with your salvation journey. But the Sinner’s Prayer doesn’t guarantee salvation. It depends on your sincerity and where your heart is with God.
God must wipe away our sins before we can enter salvation. That requires repentance, or a complete and sincere turning away from sin. Only a consistent, lifelong turn from sin demonstrates that.
Why Jesus Died on the Cross
But Jesus didn’t die on the cross because you are a sinner. He died because you were a lost son or daughter whom He chose to dwell with in eternity. The purpose of His coming wasn’t simply to die for our sins. The cross doesn’t expose your sins; it removes them to expose your potential and value to God.
Jesus came, died on a cross, and rose from the dead. He conquered sin and death to reconcile you to Him—back to God. And if we reconcile with God, we will dwell with Him.
But this salvation plan comes with a warning: this is not an “Eternal Life Assurance Policy” or “Get Out of Hell Free” card. You can’t just sign it and forget it until you need it. God knows the sincerity of your heart. It’s not a “one and done” thing.
James 2:19 says, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder”. In other words, the demons believe God exists, but they shudder because they know their fate.
Know Your Fate
KNOW YOUR FATE, and if it leads to hell, change it before you perish physically. And don’t assume you’ll live out your life and can make that choice on your deathbed.
Nothing says, “I reject God’s ways and want my ways” more than someone who waits until the last second to decide. Do you think God will honor that decision? And a life lived saying you have accepted God and then living a lifestyle that proves you haven’t accepted Him is a close second.
God knows our hearts. He can tell whether a decision is sincere…
In 1 Samuel 16:7, God tells Samuel: “…God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Chronicles 28:9 says: “…Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.“
Psalm 139:1–4 says: “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.“
Jeremiah 17:10 says: “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.”
How Do You Know You’ll Be Able to Live Life Your Way and Make a Last-Minute Decision For God?
How do you know you’ll make it to a deathbed? You could die suddenly in a car accident or some other sudden way. Nobody knows when they will pass. Many NDE stories show that death can be sudden, before you have the chance to make a decision for Christ.
Go back to the section above where Jesus tells the story of Judgment Day. Some people will face judgment believing they are saved. But God will turn them away to hell because they didn’t obey His teachings.
Did you learn to love? Are you learning to love? Did you learn God’s love? Or did you embrace some “New Thought Relativist” idea? Do you think it’s where love is relative to your circumstances? That kind of “love” is an abomination to God.
Wrong Ideas About Love
Slogans like “Love is Love” reflect some misconceptions about love. That slogan bespeaks the idea that validates a kind of love that is what homosexuals and transgenders feel for each other in a monogamous relationship. That’s not the kind of love God expects of us. God directly describes every sexual activity employed by the LGBT+ community as abominations. God intensely hates that. It says so in Scripture. There is no twisting it to mean what the slogan intends.
And LGBT+ people aren’t the only ones committing sexual sins God calls “abomination”. This group also includes adulterers, fornicators, and those who practice bestiality, pornography, masturbation, child molestation, and all other forms of perverse, profane sexual activity.
These are not love, but rather perverted, profane, demented lusts. And they are all a ticket to hell if unrepented. The sinner must turn to godly ways for the duration of their physical life and renounce the sins. That’s repentance. That’s a true sign of a repentant, sincere heart.
God intended sex drive for procreation and nothing else. Notice that ALL sexual sins result in not reproducing, or they break the sacred institution of the marriage covenant. A godly relationship is important in the kingdom of God.
This isn’t simply wishful religious thinking. It comes directly from the Bible.
The Hope That Lies Within Us
Those of us who have made a real, honest, sincere commitment to God obey his commandments.
In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul admonishes us, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.“
James the Apostle says in James 2:15-17, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
We have to put our faith into action. It ultimately boils down to a sincere relationship with God and our fellow humans. We must learn to “serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind“.
So it behooves us to study the Scriptures, obey God’s commandments, and pray in secret with God, spending time getting to know Him and laying our hearts before Him.
And prayer takes place in our spirit with our minds and hearts engaged.
I began this post by describing how God puts a human being together. I hope this helps readers understand how we communicate with God and why it matters.