Physical Death and Spiritual Death
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
Our physical life begins at birth and our spiritual life begins when God gave us the Holy Spirit. We are physical and spiritual, our flesh coming from the dust and our spiritual soul coming from God. The life of our flesh is temporary and the life of our soul is eternal. Your soul is the part of you that consists of your mind, character, thoughts, and feelings. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
Physical death is when our flesh dies and our conscious soul separates from the body. Spiritual death is when our spiritual soul is disconnected from God. A person can be physically alive and spiritually dead. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. (John 6:63) The Spirit, the Holy Spirit that lives in the believer, gives life to our soul because it connects us to God through Christ. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) If we accept Christ we have the Holy Spirit and our spiritual soul has life now and forever.
The Holy Spirit speaks only what he hears from the Lord. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13). Our Spirit is now alive because we are connected to the Lord. The Lord molds us to the mind of Christ and we become the person we were created to be. We are created in the image of God and the Holy Spirit teaches us to live like Christ; to live the way we were created to live.
Are we more concerned about our physical death, or are we more concerned about our spiritual death, the death of our eternal soul? We certainly cannot ignore our physical health, but we always consider our spiritual health because every thought, word, and action has eternal consequences. After our last breath, our soul and our consciousness will separate from our body and we live forever. Where we live our eternal life is completely our choice.
Today remember that your thoughts, words, and actions, have eternal consequences. Know the Lord is listening to your thoughts. Your thoughts aren’t just within yourself; they are broadcast to the Lord through the Spirit. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5) God listens to all our thoughts just as he listened to the thoughts of the people living before the flood.
Prayer: Help me to be eternally minded and give more thought to my eternal life. Guide me through the spirit to lead a life that leads to eternal life. Continue to mold me to be more like Christ so I may have life to the full and eternal life with you. In Jesus name, Amen