John 4:24 (AMP)

God is spirit [the Source of life, yet invisible to mankind], and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

We all have genuine intentions and in our zeal to love God and to show him how much he means to us we sometimes fall into a trap. A trap that pushes us to adopt religious ways to prove our heart that makes us “do” rather than operate from a place of spiritual authenticity. This has happened to me and still does at times; I get caught up in the act of doing, rather than operating from a place where my spirit resides. This is when I am “driven” from my soul rather than my spirit which is where we are truly connected with God. Can you identify?

What is the difference between our Soul and Spirit you may ask –

• Our Soul is that part of us that contains our personality, our likes and dislikes, our emotions and everything physical that others can see.
• Our Spirit on the other hand is as unseen as God is – it is where the deeper part of our being exists, it is the place where we truly connect to our higher Source. It is where we ask the deeper questions of ourselves. It is where we find the meaning of living. It is a place where we are least understood.

Our spirit facilitates authenticity while our soul facilitates “works”.

God is interested in authenticity and we can never have a true authentic relationship with God acting from the soul level.

In our zeal for God we need to ensure that we seek him in a spiritual way as John4:24 tells us.

There is nothing that we can do to impress God after all he knows us through and through. He knows our thoughts, he knows our motives, he knows everything about us. We should therefore aim to please him by making the choices he expects and by trying our best to remain in His perfect will. We can only achieve this if we have a relationship with him through our spirit. God was pleased with David because he had a deep spiritual connection with Him. David had a love and zeal for God; it was through David’s obedience and constant interceding on behalf of Israel which gave him favor with God. David did as God expected! This act of love and obedience by David allowed God to have mercy on Solomon and Solomon’s son and the Israelites. When we have a true authentic spiritual connection with God it impacts not only us but our children, their children and the people around us.
Let us understand the difference between the Soul and the Spirit so that we will endeavor to operate in Spiritual authenticity at all times. This will eliminate us acting from the soul level which really does nothing to enhance our experience on our journey to our final destination.