Understanding What Drives Mankind:

For most of mankind there is an inner sense that something is obviously missing. Deep within everybody knows it and mostly unconsciously tries to fill the void with many things and pursuits. Yet, it’s a void that seems it can’t be filled.

• Without thinking about it, some try to find what is missing by their pursuit of and preoccupation with endless activities, going from this to that, pursuing physical pleasures and the acquisition of more and more “things.”
• Others give themselves to more and more education, hoping to find the answer.
• Some pursue gross sin to gratify the basest desires of their flesh.
• Others turn to false mystical religions and ‘drug trips’ that never really satisfy their innermost yearning.
• But most deny the longing and simply plod along merely trying to hold life together.

There may not be anything wrong with some of these pursuits, but none satisfies a person’s inner longing needing to be satisfied. The fact is that these are all dead ends, and as we proceed we will see why that is true.

There is an inner yearning for satisfaction that is inborn to every human. That inner yearning is like a tune that cannot be forgotten. It comes again and again – the sense that there must be something more to be found in life. Perhaps as you relax, trying to sleep, the gnawing sense of dissatisfaction returns – a sense that something is missing.

We may search out so many things in the course of our lives, only to find they do not actually satisfy our deepest longing. Actually, that’s okay because most all of us will go wrong for quite some time in order to become convinced that nothing in this world offers real satisfaction. Nevertheless, seeking to quench and satisfy this yearning within is the driving force within every person. It’s that desire that propels us on from the time of our human birth. In the course of our lifetime we may be led down many empty and blind alleys before we find the truth of the source for real satisfaction.

Thus, we have some basic questions to answer.

• What is man? Of what is he composed?
• Why Man? What is his purpose?
• From where does this inner yearning come and how can it be satisfied?

To himself man is a mystery in the universe. Of all the creatures on earth only man is so driven by this inner yearning. Animals live instinctually, but man has this deeper awareness of his emptiness and the hunger that drives him on. Although we know more about man now than ever before, his DNA, RNA, the human genome, cell structure, the working of the brain and bodily organs, and computer technology, most still do not understand man’s innermost need.

Most philosophers, psychologists, and theologians realize that man is not so simple. He is regarded as an entity with a dual nature, being both physical and metaphysical – both biological and psychological. So, men pursue these realms scientifically. What they’ve found is pretty much the extent of the common understanding of the fundamental make-up of man. Still, in the light of this degree of understanding man remains powerless to quench his sense of inner emptiness.

For most, man remains a mystery. So, let’s now examine the Biblical understanding of man’s tri-part make-up; being of the physical body and the metaphysical, which consists of his soul and also the “spirit of man.”

• By our body, we possess “world consciousness.”
• By our soul, we can communicate thought, have feelings, and make willful “self-conscious” decisions.
• It is by our HUMAN “SPIRIT OF MAN” that we are “GOD-CONSCIOUS.” By Our Human Spirit We Can …HEAR God and RECEIVE His “Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus,” …and thereby come to KNOW GOD personally and intimately.

“The spirit of man [that organ in the human which proceeds immediately from God] is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. (Proverbs 20:27 (AMP)

The Physical Body:

Everyone is aware of his own body. It is physical, tangible, and lends itself to scientific investigation. If you ask a chemist, “What is man?” he might produce an analysis, pointing to the facts that man consists of so much water, nitrogen, carbon, and other elements. Yet, he refers to only the physical part of man’s being. Man’s body certainly appears to be made of the elements of the earth, just as stated in the Bible. “the Lord God formed the man from the dust (dirt) of the ground …” (Genesis 2:7a)

Since the beginning of history, man has sought to be free from the imprisonment of his physical body, to touch something that will satisfy his deepest inner longing. Men try sex, drugs, alcohol, and systems of physical aesthetics, physical asceticism, and now the “virtual electronic world,” ever trying to find new ways of pleasing their physical senses. Yet, they only find that nothing really satisfies that inner hunger. Physical and sensual pleasure is but fleeting. Although man has managed to prolong his biological life, still every man comes to the point where he has to admit that the body is a literal… dead end.

What about the Metaphysical – The Unseen Non-Physical Parts of Man?

A psychologist would describe man as more than a mere physical being; man is also a psychological being. In short, man is a thinking, feeling, and willing entity. He is not mere animated dust, but a real live individual person. Each person has their uniquely distinctive personality.

Your real self, he would explain, is your inner-self, your hidden psychological self, while your physical body is just the outward shell of your being. This, the psychologist would say, “Is you.” Scripture confirms this as being ‘the soul of man.”

The psychological part of man is the soul of man. “Psyche” comes from the Greek, “psuche,” which is translated in our Bible as the “soul” of man. “…The first man Adam was made a living soul” (1 Cor. 15:45a) “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (spirit); and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) Psychology is the study of the soul. The individual’s soul faculties are his mind, emotions and will, which comprise his unique inward person.

If you were to ask the psychologist about man, he might say that beside his body, he has a more inward, hidden composition within his soul. Man has a mind that provides consciousness and awareness as his thinking organ. Man has emotions as the faculty by which he is capable of loving, hating, yearning, being depressed or elated. He might also point out that man has a free-will as his faculty for choosing, judging, and deciding.

The last two centuries of human history have spectacularly demonstrated the human soul’s power. The minds of men have contributed an abundance of thought and discovery. The great minds and wills of men have produced an abundance of decisive action, for good and evil, in medicine, science, empires, governments and cultures. Without doubt the soul has soared to its zenith in recent history – yet in spite of man’s great accomplishments, the sense of inner emptiness remains. This is evidenced as we note the number of unhappy self-centered people by the current rates of suicides, addictions, and divorce.

We can conquer the moon, work with nanotechnology, investigate the genome of man, and generate stem cell manufactured organs, but still, deep within every man’s self, there remains some yet uncharted territory. The capacity of man’s soul is inadequate to satisfy man within himself. His highest thoughts are soon forgotten, his deepest emotions quickly fade, his most adamant determination of will falters. In the soul of man, the search for a key to the mystery of man continues… always ultimately ending in frustration.

In order to fathom the mystery of man, we must go beyond the physical realm, and also beyond the psychological realm.

The key to solving the mystery of man is his unique third organ, which the Bible calls “the spirit of man.”

The Human’s “Spirit of Man” is the Third and Most Vital Part of an Individual:

Hidden and obscured, there is this third organ and faculty deeper within man than his body and soul. It has remained a mystery to most people throughout all the ages. Yet it is the answer to every seekers search for reality, truth, and satisfaction.

The “spirit of man within him” is far deeper than man’s mind, beyond 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 and soulical senses.

You see, man is Tri-part in his make-up. The “Apostle to the Gentiles,” Paul, wrote; “I (Paul) pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless...” (1 Thes. 5:23)

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

The life-giving marrow as the source of the physical life-blood is twice hidden. It is hid first within the physical body and then again within the bone. Likewise, there is hidden within the body and within the soul of man a deeper third part, 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; but it is not the soul… it is “the spirit of man.”

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

Proverbs 20:27 “The spirit of man is the candle [light-giving lamp] of the Lord” …

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

Hebrews 4:12 “… dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow…”

As discussed 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. So long as “the spirit of man” remains void of completion and satisfaction, it generates this desire and hunger to be satisfied.

What Exactly Does the Unfulfilled Spirit of Man Desire?

The very purpose and function of man is …to be a receptacle, to receive and be filled with the very life of God Himself. The human’s “spirit of man” was deliberately created to enable men to become “one spirit” (1Cor. 6:17) with Christ’s “Spirit of life.” The “spirit of man” was made to be filled with Christ’s own “life-giving Spirit” (1Cor 15:45).

You see, God placed this desire within the soul of every human born, so that in his seeking man would ultimately find the truth, yield to, receive God’s love, grace, and eternal life that is sent to us in the person of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Only then will a man be filled and satisfied. Apart from receiving “the Spirit of Christ” into a man’s human spirit, he can never be satisfied in his soul.

Colossians 2:9-10 For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. ¹⁰ And YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power:

All human roads to satisfying this deepest part of our human being are powerless – self-effort cannot bring us to completion. There is only one way to get there -- Only God can… and will get you there. Man is unique among all the creatures of God; he was made with a human spirit, as the precise organ meant specifically to relate to and ultimately receive the very life of the Lord Jesus, who now “is that Spirit” (2Cor. 3:17a).

The mind is able to think, but only the human spirit can contact, receive, and be filled with Christ’s life as the fulfillment of our inner search for satisfaction.  Every man needs to become completed in their spirit by receiving “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” into their human spirit – to become “One Spirit” with Him and His eternal life.  So, there are two spirits involved; Christ’s “Spirit of life” and our human spirit. These two spirits were made to go together – to become “one spirit” within us. The Apostle Paul writes;

“But HE THAT IS JOINED UNTO THE LORD IS ‘ONE SPIRIT.’” (1Cor. 6:17)

Before the cross of Christ, God and fallen men were at enmity and incompatible. But now, Christ was “raised (from the dead) for our justification” … paying for ALL our sins – past, present, and future. Jesus has fully cleared our sin-debt account. Justice has been served by Christ death in our place!

Actually, to be ‘born again,’ as the Bible calls it, is not some legal transaction. To be reborn is to become “regenerated” (Titus 3:5) by the indwelling “Spirit of Christ.”  This rebirth is organic…it is ‘life-giving.’ When we receive “the Spirit of Life in Christ” into our human spirit, we receive His very Life to be our new and eternal life.

Christ rose from the dead as the “life-giving Spirit” (1Cor. 15:45). Christ is the life-bearing “Seed” of God the Father (1Peter 1:23). “Seed” here is the Greek is “sperma.” The Father’s Christ-Seed bears the very life, nature, and spiritual DNA of God our Father. Thus, God then is the “Father” of all who are born of His “seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16); they are “born-again.”

John 3:6 …that which is born of the Spirit (Christ’s) is (your) spirit.

Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of REGENERATION, and RENEWING of THE HOLY GHOST (Spirit);

Col. 1:27 … the glorious riches of this mystery (God’s plan), which is CHRIST IN YOU…

Rom 8:16 [Christ’s] Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

To take Christ’s Spirit of Life into you is very easy:

Through His death on the cross, Christ solved the sin issue forever. He shed His blood and accomplished perfect (complete) redemption for us. He’s paid for our sins that have separated us from God. Rom. 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. So, believers are justified; all problems between God and us have been fully solved. All there is left to do is … “receive Him” by faith.

John 1:12 But as many as RECEIVED HIM (Jesus Christ), to them gave he power to BECOME THE SONS OF GOD, even to them that believe (trust in and rely upon) on his name:

Just like the air enveloping us, Christ’s Spirit now is so available and willing to fill the emptiness of our human spirit and soul. “The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” is ready to come and dwell in any person who would “receive Him.” We receive Him by simply opening our heart to trust in Jesus Christ alone as our Savior; we come to Him believing He’ll receive us just as we are.

By opening your heart to call upon Him inwardly, you will be “saved” from judgment and from your past, and for eternity; He will fill you with His eternal limitless life.

Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess (profess) with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt Believe In Thine Heart That God Hath Raised Him (Jesus) From The Dead, Thou Shalt Be Saved. ¹⁰ For With The Heart Man Believeth Unto Righteousness; and with the mouth confession (profession) is made unto salvation.

Immediately then, the “Spirit of life in Christ” will come into your human spirit and you will be ‘one with Him’… forever – never to be separated. It’s that simple; immediately, deep within, something new will come to birth – something you have never experienced before. This is Christ’s Life Within You, with the innermost sense of His peace and joy; with the security and satisfaction that is of your personal relationship with the indwelling Christ. This relationship will grow day by day as you grow in grace and understanding. Your whole life will become changed from inside out… now around a new center, which is Christ within your spirit.

At last, your search has ended. You have become a normal human who is filled with His life within you, just as God intended. “… YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM …” (Col. 2:10)

The following diagram demonstrates that we are made having three distinct organs of our being. As Christians, we are to be governed by the Lord (The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Rom 8:2a), who is then located within, and one with, our human spirit located in the midst of out being (Daniel 7:5, Col 1:26-27, Rom 8:8-10).

This diagram indicates the proper order of our being; The Lord proceeds to filll and flow from His abode within our human spirit, using our soul's mind, emotion, will to rule our body. Man is to be ruled from the inside, where reality and true life resides. We, as a soul self, are to be ruled by the life of Christ located in our innermost part, our spirit, from inside-out. Spirit rules soul and the submissive soul in turn, rules body. 1 Thes. 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly (totally, completely); and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.