When the Lord called me to start speaking to the body of Christ about the Bible, it wasn’t some huge announcement, nor was it earth-shattering teaching that He wanted me to share; in my spirit, what I heard from the Lord was to take truths from His Word and make it simple.
I also endeavored to do this with my coaching business when I mentored my team on strategies for marketing, product launches, new fitness communities, etc. As an elementary teacher, and more recently an online tutor, I do the very same thing: take concepts and make them simple to understand.
The truth is, I’m a simple gal. I don’t cook complex recipes, I don’t do complicated workouts, and I don’t like to have more than three major to-do’s in my day. If you can relate, then this blog is definitely for you!
A Biblical concept I find Christians have either been misled in or find perplexing is how we, as humans, are created in God’s image and how God is one but more than one all at the same time.
In Genesis 1:26-28 using The Message version, I’m putting in bold what I want us to focus on, “God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our natureSo they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings; He created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female.”
We see in the very first chapter of the Bible that God created both Adam and Eve as human beings to live on the earth and be responsible for all that live here.
Bear with me as I go a little elementary-school-grammar on you here. Notice that God is used in the plural form by the pronouns us and our, and God is a plural noun said in the third-person singular verb form. This important observation tells us that God is a plurality in unity.
Just a quick side note that if English Language Arts wasn’t your favorite thing in school, that’s why God gifted others to help teach us! The same thing goes for me in the subject of math- thank God for good teachers that helped me get through :-).
From only using Genesis 1:26-28, we can conclude that there is one God and He is more than one being.
We find more answers when we go back to Genesis 1:1 where we meet God, the Father, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Later on in the Bible, (and in many other places, too) we meet God, the Father again and Jesus, the Son in 1 Corinthians 8:6, “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.”
In Genesis 1:2, we meet God, the Holy Spirit, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
From these scriptures, and many others such as, Deuteronomy 32:6, Psalm 102:25, Mark 13:19, John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16-17, Job 33:4, and Psalm 104:30, we get to know God, the Creator as a triune being.
As God is established in three parts, we are also established in three parts. Remember, we read in Genesis 1:26 that we were made in God’s likeness- we were made in three parts, too, just like Him.
Humans have a soul, a spirit, and a body. Our soul is very different from our spirit. The soul is the mind, will, and emotions.
I’ve often heard people say, many souls were saved. But, the truth is that our soul doesn’t get saved; our soul can be renewed (Romans 12:2) but it isn’t saved.
Our spirit is the real person inside of us that is able to be saved by the blood of Jesus. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are saved, which means we now belong to God and we will join God in Heaven one day.
Our body is our physical body that we live in. It’s the part of us that we have to feed, exercise, discipline, and clean every day. Our soul and spirit also eat but in a different way. When we read and learn things, we are feeding our soul. When we worship God, read the Bible, and pray we are feeding our spirit.
In conclusion, there is one God who is three persons or parts, and we are also one person with three parts. We will live for eternity, just like God. And, we have been given the opportunity to choose where that will be, in Heaven, then later on in the new earth (Revelation 21:1), or in Hell, then later on in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).
If you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today right where you are! You don’t need to take a shower, you don’t need to quit smoking yet, or have it all together, you can be saved just as you are.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
There is no right way to pray this prayer, except that you confess Jesus as your Lord and believe it in your heart. A simple way to do this is to say, “Jesus, I accept you as my Lord and Savior today. Forgive me of all my sins. I am Yours. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
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