READ: 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24
“…shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the FATHER OF SPIRITS, and live?” – Hebrews 12:9
The fact that a human being is actually a spirit living inside a physical body is one of the lesser known truths. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he wrote that God should affect them in all three areas: spirit, soul and body.
A human being is not just a piece of meat. When people speak in a very proud and arrogant way, it is because they are not aware of how real eternal things are.
I will never forget my first day as a medical student in one of the laboratories at the University of Ghana Medical School. It was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon when we were ushered into a large air conditioned room containing twelve white marble tables. On each of these tables was a dead human being lying stark naked. There were about ten dead men and two dead women. On the chest of each human being was a plaster with a name inscribed on it. The name of our cadaver was Cornelius. I wondered to myself, “Who was Cornelius during his lifetime? What did he do for a living? How did he come to lie before us, ready for eighteen months of intensive dissection?”
The Anatomy lecturer said something that has stayed with me since then. He said, “This scene should make everyone of you seriously consider what life is all about.” He added, “If life just consists of the physical then even goats are better. Because when goats die they can be eaten, but human beings cannot be eaten.”
I thought about that statement and I realized that life must consist of more than what we see physically. Man is a spirit. The Bible says that God is the Father of spirits. If God is the Father of spirits, then we His children are spirits. That means that our bodies are just containers of the spirit.