Let us realize that the Spirit of God is in us. But let us also realize that the deepest part of our being is our spirit. What is the difference between our soul and our spirit? Both are spiritual and it is hard to distinguish between them. The soul has God-given powers, but the spirit is the pure “self”, the deepest essence of our being. At the same time, it is the opposite of the negative self, the so-called old self, ego, which binds and substitutes for the spirit. Our spirit longs for God as the magnetic needle always points to the North, because God is our beginning, and we are created in His image having an immortal spirit.

The Scripture says that God breathed His spirit into the dust of the ground and we became a living soul (Gen 2:7). We inherit both physical traits and mental abilities from our parents. At the moment of our conception, however, God immediately breathes His spirit into us and makes it our own. Our mental and physical being thus comes to life and at the hour of death the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecc 12:7). Of course, this will be followed by God’s judgment when the saved will be separated from the damned.

When sin isolates the human spirit from the Spirit of God, man falls under the sway of death, is spiritually dead. If he is to come to life, he must break with sin through repentance and unite to God’s Spirit again through faith in the power of Christ’s crucifixion, and thus to receive God’s life. This is also expressed in the prophetic prayer when we speak the word of authority: “That they may live! That those slain by sin may live!” (Eze 37)

The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. (1Co 15:45) Adam did not yet directly participate in the life of God. We only participate in it through Jesus Christ, the last Adam, who gave us, i.e. the Church, His Spirit at Pentecost. We already receive Him in baptism, but we lose (expel) Him through grave sin.

The Scripture also says that the word of God pierces to the depths of the soul, even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow (Heb 4:12). We can simply say that the spirit is the soul of our soul. So the essence of our soul is our innermost self, the spirit. Jesus says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit (Gr. pneuma), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He does not say: “Blessed are the poor in soul (Gr. psyche).” Our spirit should be poor – free. To be poor in spirit means that our spirit is not bound by a great variety of vanities or harmful addictions. It is also written that if we have received the Spirit of God and are led by Him, the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom 8:16). Deep in our soul then we feel God’s peace. Those who are atheists or occultists, i.e. modern pagans, do not have the Spirit of Christ. They have either not received Him or expelled Him. Therefore they are not children of God and the Spirit of God cannot bear witness with their spirit because they do not have Him. Inner spiritual realities are hard to express in words; even the whole psychological, philosophical and theological apparatus is not sufficient to express our deep intellectual and spiritual processes. It is not necessary anyway. There is only one thing that is necessary: to know that we are children of God. To hear the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit in us, for the Spirit of God is in unity with our spirit and speaks to us even through our conscience if it is clean and formed properly. As we will recite this word of life for the following two weeks, let us realize again who we are – we are children of God, heirs of God’s kingdom.

Jesus said in Gethsemane: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” The term for ‘soul’ in the original is psyche. At the hour of death, however, Jesus says: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit (Gr. pneuma).” The Apostle Paul clearly distinguishes between the spiritual man and the mental (psychic) man. He mentions three types of people:

1. Sarkikos – from sarx, flesh – signifies the carnal, natural man.

2. Psychikos – of the soul. This man can be very sophisticated, well acquainted with various psychologies, philosophies, theologies, technical or natural sciences, but he only develops mental abilities.

3. The opposite of the two is the spiritual man – pneumatikos. Being spiritual does not require developing mental activity. If one does develop it under the influence of the Spirit of God, it can be useful because the mental mechanism with logical and emotional expression can serve and promote the Spirit. However, the Spirit works even without this mechanism. An example is the simple parish priest of Ars. When an intellectual from the Sorbonne visited him, the Spirit of God, who was in the priest, touched him so powerfully through the priest’s simple words that He caused the intellectual to turn to God and to find the most precious treasure.

Spiritual people are those who serve a spirit and in whom a spirit is present. But the question is what kind of spirit it is. If it is the Spirit of God, we can speak about a man of holy life, guided by the Spirit as written in Romans 8:14: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” But in order to be led by the Spirit of God, we must not be slaves of the flesh. Because of our corrupt nature, the flesh automatically has power over the spirit and does not allow it to manifest itself. But if we undergo purification through repentance, we experience the dominion of the spirit over the flesh, because the Spirit of God comes and, as we read in verse 2, the law of the Spirit makes us free from the law of sin and death, i.e. even from the natural man’s lifestyle under the slavery of sin.

As for the primacy of the spirit over the flesh, it is not achieved only by external austerity. External austerity is practised even by gurus who do so far more rigidly than Christian saints. Gurus, however, do so with great pride. They embrace a spirit of pride, a demonic spirit, which manifests its power even through extraordinary signs. A Christian ascetic, by contrast, tries above all to fight against pride and ego. External austerity is not the end but only the means to practical deliverance that we should not be slaves to food, sexuality or other lusts but that we use them according to God’s order in opposition to disorder and iniquity as foisted on people by the world and its psychologies and ideologies. The source of strength for this Christian austerity is the Spirit of God, as it is written: “By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.” (Rom 8:13) Austerity is thus no self-torture but a vital need to maintain a healthy lifestyle without slavish dependence. It is a sign of true freedom of spirit and true freedom in Christ. The Apostle says: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Gal 5:1) “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (Jn 8:36) “If you abide in My word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn 8:32)

The spiritual man, pneumatikos, is either a saint or a satanist. A saint lives under the power of the Spirit of God and a satanist under the power of the spirit of lies and death. Both can have extraordinary abilities, but it is necessary to discern between the fruits of the one and the fruits of the other. The fruits of the former lead to humility and eternal salvation, the fruits of the latter to pride and eternal damnation. This is particularly evident in occultism. People who practise divination are very proud and those who practise magic even more so. Fortune-tellers are mediums of a demon who gives them special information, and the fruits of consulting a fortune-teller are as follows: manipulating people, setting them against their neighbours or relatives, and arousing suspicion and hatred because you believe that the cause of your problem is the person identified by the fortune-teller. This person, however, is completely innocent. But suddenly you feel hatred towards this person. After consulting an occultist, who is a medium of a spirit, be it a mesmerist, extrasensory individual or healer, you are apparently healed but the disease just moves to another part of the body and, what is more, you become enslaved by the spirit to which you opened yourself and now you are under its sway. Even if this bondage never manifests itself and remains latent throughout your life, it will definitely manifest itself at the hour of death. The sin against the First Commandment – i.e. the worship of demons, Pachamama or various so-called energies, opening oneself to them or communicating with them – results in physical bondage and liability to moral perversion which is now being legalized under the label of gender ideology and destroys the whole human society. This is the fruit of Satanism connected with the occult. Paganism is both moral and spiritual impurity. The devil enslaves man through pride and through human passions. Those who thus become slaves of the devil cause suffering both to themselves and to others. The more one abuses the spiritual gifts from God, the greater is the effect of the spiritual infection. E.g. Oriental meditation (yoga, Zen Buddhism) helps to release mental energies and imitate the Spirit of God; however, it leads people to open themselves to a demonic spirit, which is the spirit of pride and death. Indulging the disorderly lusts of the flesh makes man a slave of passions, such as gluttony, alcoholism, drug abuse, immorality, perversion... The devilish way, the way of slavery, is the opposite of the way of holiness. A saint also has power, but it is not the power of ego. It is the Spirit of God who manifests power through him and brings freedom.

The sin against the Holy Spirit is committed when the individual deliberately and cunningly refers to the working of the Holy Spirit as the working of demonic powers. When Jesus did works in the power of the Spirit and in the power of God, the Pharisees said that He was demon-possessed and did His works by the power of Beelzebub, Satan (Mt 12:24). This is the essence of the sin against the Holy Spirit – stubbornness. Or, vice versa, to say that the working of demonic powers is the working of God is also a sin against the Holy Spirit. An example is Simon the Magician about whom all people were saying that he was “the great power of God” but in fact it was the demonic power of magic (Acts 8).

Nowadays we often encounter this sin against the Holy Spirit, even among the highest church dignitaries. Those who truly serve God are accused as the greatest enemies of the Church and those who serve demons are presented as representatives of divine authority.

Let us remember throughout the next two weeks that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. We surely are children of God and let us remain so!

Download: Reflection on Rom 8:16