The five senses of our body are aware of our body, and the world, so it is the part of us that gives us world-consciousness.
The functions of our soul are will, choice, emotions, mind, imagination, reason and conscience.
The soul belongs to mankind’s “self or individuality” and reveals their personality; it gives us self-consciousness.
The spirit is that part of us which we communicate with God and by which we can apprehend and worship Him. So, our spirit gives us God-consciousness. Our spirit also senses the spirit realm.
God dwells in our spirit, self-dwells in our soul, while our physical senses and brain dwell in the body.
The soul is the meeting-point of spirit and body, for there they are joined together. Our soul interprets what our body senses and what our spirit senses.
Through his body mankind is in contact with the outside sensuous world, being affected by it.
The soul stands between these two worlds (the physical and the spiritual) yet belongs to both.
It is linked with the spiritual world through the spirit and with the physical world through the body. It also possesses the power of free will and is able to choose from among which environment to live from.
The spirit cannot act directly upon the body. It needs a medium, and that medium is the soul, which was produced by our spirit entering our body.
The soul therefore stands between the spirit and the body, binding these two together.
The spirit can subdue the body through the medium of the soul, so that it will obey God; likewise, the body through the soul can love the world.
Of these three elements the spirit is the noblest for it joins with God. The body is the lowest because it contacts the physical world.
The soul lying between them joins the two together and takes their character to be its own.
The soul makes it possible for the spirit and the body to communicate and to cooperate.
The work of the soul is to keep these two in their proper order so that they may not lose their right relationship: so that the body may be brought into subjection to the spirit, and that the spirit may govern the body through the soul.
Mankind’s prime element is the soul. It looks to the spirit to give what the soul has receives from the Holy Spirit in order that the soul, after it has been perfected, may transfer what it has obtained to the body; then the body too may share in the perfection of the Holy Spirit and so become a spiritual body.
The spirit is the noblest part of man and occupies the innermost area of his being. The body is the lowest and takes the outermost place. Between these two dwells the soul, serving as their medium.
The body is the outer housing of the soul, while the soul is the outer covering of the spirit. The spirit transmits its thoughts to the soul and the soul exercises the body to obey the spirit’s order.
This is the meaning of the soul as the medium. Before the fall of man, the spirit controlled the whole being through the soul.
The power of the soul is most significant, since the spirit and the body are merged there and make it the site of man’s personality and influence.
Before man committed sin the power of the soul was completely under the dominion of the spirit. Its strength was therefore the spirit’s strength.
The spirit cannot itself act upon the body; it can only do so through the medium of the soul.
This we can see in Luke 1:46–47: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
Here the change in tense shows that the spirit first conceived joy in God, and then, communicating with the soul, caused it to give expression to the feeling by means of the bodily organ.”
To repeat, the soul is the location of personality. The will, intellect, imagination, reason and emotions of mankind are there.
As the spirit is used to communicate with the spiritual world and the body with the natural world, so the soul stands between and exercises its power to discern and decide whether the spiritual or the natural world should reign.
Sometimes too the soul itself takes control over man through its intellect, thus creating an ideational (relating to the formation of ideas or concepts) world which reigns.
For the spirit to govern, the soul must give its consent; otherwise, the spirit is helpless to regulate the soul and the body.
But this decision is up to the soul, for therein resides the personality of mankind.
The soul is the central point of the entire being, because mankind’s will belong to it.
It is only when the soul is willing to assume a humble position that the spirit can ever manage the whole person.
If the soul rebels against being submissive to the spirit, our spirit will be powerless to rule.
This explains the meaning of the free will of mankind. Mankind is not a robot that submits to God’s will.
Rather, man has full sovereign power to decide for themselves. They possess the organ of their own volition (will) and can choose either to follow God’s will or to resist Him and follow Satan’s will instead.
God desires that the spirit, should control the whole being. Yet, the will: the decisive part of individuality belongs to the soul.
It is the will which determines whether the spirit, the body, or even the soul itself is to rule.
Since the soul possesses such power and is the organ of mankind’s individuality, the Bible calls man “a living soul.”