You are a 3 part being–spirit, soul, and body.
You are not just a body that has a soul and spirit, nor are you a soul that has a body and spirit.
Your spirit is the real you (Remember when God breathed into Adam?), That was God breathing in his life as his spirit.

Your soul -defined as your mind, will, intellect, and emotions.
And your body is… your body (what you see).

In Hebrews 4:12 it says, “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul, and spirit and of the joints and marrow,…” (the body).

If these three can be divided, then they are not all the same. Man is spirit, soul, and body.

You will find as we go further in this study and as you develop and mature in your own life, that the Word of God is the only thing that can separate the spirit and the soul of man

Let’s define man’s 3-fold nature

1. Spirit–The part of man which deals with the spiritual realm, the part of man
that knows God, the real you on the inside.
It is the area that deals with faith, hope, reverence, prayer, and worship.

2. Soul–The part of man which deals with the mental and emotional realm.
Man’s mind, will and emotions, the part of man that reasons and thinks.

3. Body–The part of man that deals with the physical realm.

The house or earth suit that we live in.

The Spirit deals with the spirit, and the body deals with the physical.

This leaves the soul, the mental part of man, as the warring ground.

Society works this way–body–soul and spirit.— (this is backward)

God works this way–spirit, soul and body.

We are just spirit beings that live in earth suits.

John 4:24 (NLT) For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
We cannot know God or touch him physically unless Jesus stood in front of us.
He is a Spirit–BUT–we can reach Him with our Spirit anytime, and it is through our spirit that we can come to know God.

Most Christians are led by the flesh. They allow their spirit and soul to be subservient to the lusts and desires of their flesh, which is why they struggle with sin.
They do not know that they are supposed to be dead to the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:24) and walk in the spiritual life.

You are dead to the flesh and free from sin.

Walking in the spirit is not about a conscious effort, it really is understanding your identity.
Thus, problems arise when your identity is rooted in our soul/body rather than your spirit.
When people are feeling angry, they say, “I’m angry.”
When people are feeling sad, they say, “I’m sad.”
When people are feeling tired, they say, “I’m tired.”
When people are feeling nervous, they say, “I’m nervous.”
When people are feeling worried, they say, “I’m worried.”

Managing your Emotions
So when people are experiencing emotions, frustrating thoughts, or pain, those are all experienced in the soul or body.

But the issue is when people place their identity in what they feel.
It’s the “I am” part of the phrase. When people say that, they fail to distinguish between “I am frustrated” versus “I am feeling frustrated.”
When someone says “I am frustrated” they are placing their identity in what they’re feeling, hence, “I am frustrated”, and as a result, they will feel completely powerless to feel anything else.

But if you can understand “I am feeling frustrated”, it changes the mindset to, oh this is just a feeling!

I don’t have to be stuck with feeling this!”
When people say, “I’m sad, I’m depressed,” the implication is that they feel stuck in that emotion — that they don’t have any power to get out of it. But if they can shift it to “I’m feeling sad, or I’m feeling depressed,” it will help them realize it’s just a feeling, and they can change what they feel.
“Man, I’ve just been so frustrated about_______________.
“Oh well, a good thing you’re a spirit.”
It becomes a tool we used to remind us that we are no longer bound by what we feel. Emotions were no longer the basis from which we decided and how we related to people.
People say things like, “I’m scared of this, I’m worried about this, this situation is making me feel stressed out.” But when they understand that what they’re feeling is something external that’s affecting them, they will feel empowered to not live in that emotion.
I’m worried about whatever.
“Oh, well good thing you’re a spirit.”

Make sense?
So the whole point of this isn’t to eliminate your emotions, nor is it to imply that you will never experience another negative emotion.
The point is to empower you to not be bound your emotion.
(e.g. you should never feel helpless to stay feeling scared in any situation).
The point is to remind you how to live from your spirit rather than from your soul.

This ties back into identity-

(Knowing who you are)

Your behavior will always reflect what you believe about yourself and what you place your identity in. If you believe you are depressed, your depression will be there to stay.
Even with sicknesses, diseases, and conditions, people say, “I’m sick.” “I’m diabetic.” “I’m paraplegic.” “I’m blind.” “I’m an alcoholic.” “I’m OCD.” The list goes on. I don’t have a problem with language and how our culture uses language, but it creates mindsets concerning people’s identity and it keeps people bound up in their issues.

Why is this even important?

The devil will do everything in his power to keep you powerless, and so long as he has you operating in your soul rather than your spirit, you will lose the battle, eventually.
The devil tries to keep believers in worry, fear, and anxiety because it keeps them focused on themselves, it paralyzes them from recognizing the real enemy and it makes them turn inward to find the problem internally.
This causes them to lose sight of God and the tools He’s given us for victory.
They get lost in their inadequacy and no longer see His power/sufficiency that works in us (Eph 1:18-23).
To live in perfect peace and joy isn’t some hyper-spiritual reality that only a few dead saints had the privilege to experience. It is possible for every believer to live in. Living in perfect peace and joy isn’t about some kind of emotional bliss that makes you super-human. It’s a confidence and awareness of who you are, who He is in you, and the tools it has given you to overcome any situation.
Having victory in every circumstance isn’t about trying to make every situation go the way you want it go. It’s about being able to have absolute peace and joy regardless of what is happening… and in that peace and joy, you realize the tools you’ve been given and that is often what helps you turn those situations for the better. Also… it’s a lot easier to think straight (Col 3:2) when you’re not caught up in an emotional breakdown.
Again, this is not about eliminating emotions from your life, that’s silly. This is about empowering you to no longer let emotions cloud the way you think, decide, and the way you relate to people. This is about learning to rule your emotional life, rather than allowing your emotional life to rule you. This is about learning to walk in the spirit, to train your spirit man to have supremacy over your soul and body.

Why.. Because -You are not just a body that has a soul.

You are a SPIRIT and are strong!