"For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebr. 4:12).

Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God (John 1:1).  Christ – the Living Word created everything in the natural sphere of things (Col.1:16).  When the Holy Spirit baptized you into the Body of Christ (I Cor. 12:13), Christ – the incorruptible word was placed in you for a Spirit birthing (I Pet. 1:23).  From Adam until the beginning of the Church at Pentecost, man had primarily operated out of the soul, while living in his body in this temporal earth. With the Spirit birthing, man had received a new person to live on the indwell him.  Through the incorruptible Seed, we received the fullness of Christ in Person, Spirit, nature, character, and life (I Pet. 1:23; Col. 2:9-10).  This first division of soul and Spirit came through the Spirit birthing by the Holy Spirit.  Christ is now the Spirit and the Person of eternal life in us (I Cor. 6:17; I John 5:11-12).   The real part of us is primarily in the soul where we make our decisions and choices.

We need the Word of God which is ever living and energetic to rightly divide with discernment and distinctions between the soul and Spirit (Hebr. 4:12a).  The soul is made up of three parts:  the mind, the emotions, and the will or the heart.  Everything in this world comes in through the five senses and contacts our mind.  Our mind uses the knowledge of good and evil to characterize and categorize our experiences in this world. The emotions are our feelings about the things we experience in this life, acts as a buffer or filter from our mind to our heart.  Our heart is where we make the ultimate decisions and choices of life or death.  The mind makes the final choice as it is buffered back from the heart through the emotions.  We are one with the Lord in Spirit (I Cor. 6:17).  For the Spirit-birthed son, there is no distinction that can genuinely be made in Spirit. The spirit of man only knows the things of man (I Cor. 2:11a).  The Spirit of God is the only one who knows the things of God (I Cor. 2:11b).  In and through the Spirit of God, we have intuition, communion, and conscience with Him.  This is why Paul said, "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Eph. 4:23), because Holy Spirit mind renewal is the place where we receive revelation, knowledge, and understanding.  All spiritual revelation, teaching, spiritual discernment, and spiritual judgment from the Holy Spirit is to convince us to choose the life, expression, and mind of Christ within us (I Cor. 2:10-16).

We do not operate Spiritual gifts by the spirit of man.  The scriptures capitalizes the word Spirit nine (9) times in Paul's discussion of Spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12:3-11.  There is not a single use of the uncapitalized word for spirit, which we might refer to man.  It is God Himself in us that knows and operates these gifts in and through us.  Christ is the charismatic or Gifted One in us who operates through us as us.  After all of Paul's frustration and contemplation in Romans chapter 7, his final conclusion was that "with the mind I myself serve the law of God" (Rom. 7:25). "For to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6b).  This clearly speaks of the Holy Spirit renewed and transformed mind of Christ within us (I Cor. 2:16).  The division of soul and Spirit by the Word, brings discernment and distinction in the mind and heart of man! (Hebr. 4:12b).  V