“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.” (Psalms 62:5)
David commands his soul in this psalm. The soul is the mind, will and emotions and influences our actions. The soul is either effected by the flesh or the spirit. In David’s time, the Holy Spirit was not indwelling. He would come upon them at times to empower for a mighty work of God, for prophecy or other work of God in individuals, usually kings, prophets and priests, and occasionally in others God anointed for a special task. The Spirit of God would ascend on them to enable them to do what God wanted them to do. Such was the case with Samson who gained supernatural strength when the Spirit of God came on him. (Judges 13-16) Gideon was a coward until the Spirit of God came on him and he became a conqueror. (Judges 6-8) There are many such examples.
What influences your soul? Today, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is always with us. We can either allow the Spirit of God to influence our soul or the flesh. There is a saying about the one we feed is the one in control. It’s related to an allegory which I cannot recall, except for the moral. Which are we feeding? Are we feeding the flesh which in turn influences our soul to affect our actions? The flesh is very enticing and demanding. The more we feed it, the more it wants. An example of this would be to allow oneself to have outbursts of anger. We feel better, superior and a winner of whatever was the object of discussion. If we continue in this manner it will result in anger outbursts to control every situation instead of using reason and others’ opinions and rationale to come to an agreeable end. It leads to manipulation. Are we allowing the flesh, feelings of personal comfort lead us?
Or are we allowing the Holy Spirit to rule over our souls? The Holy Spirit will never lead us in conflict with the Word of God. He will confirm what the Word of God is saying to us. And the Word of God will confirm what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. This two-fold confirmation makes our decision sure that we are following the right path and doing what God wants us to do. And just like obeying the flesh makes it easier to obey the flesh, obeying the Spirit of God makes it easier to follow God.
My husband is always after me because I always choose the hardest way of doing things. I’ve learned that shortcuts are the way of the flesh. I’d rather struggle and accomplish things correctly than take a shortcut and do things that are passable and that will make do. We can see how the flesh always wants to take the easy way, the fast way and the mediocre way.
So, either we allow the Spirit of God and the Word of God to influence our soul (mind, will and emotions) or allow the flesh. It’s hard to fight our emotions. When our emotions come into play, the will has more or less made up our mind on what to do. If you think on your last big decisions or discussions, you can see how this has played out.
Paul is the one who distinctly identified us as three-part beings, spirit, soul and body. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thessalonias 5:23) Our spirits are reborn of God, eternal, pure and holy not influenced by anything of this world. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1Peter 1:23) The Spirit of God speaks to our human spirit, the righteousness of God. It is only through our reborn spirit that is born again of God, that we can hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. Then it can influence our soul. If we are not reading the Word of God nor having that communion with the Lord, because of the flesh (and that is the case always-The flesh says, “I’m too tired, too sleepy, too busy, etc...”), then the flesh is being fed and favored more than the spirit. It has more influence on our soul (mind will and emotions) and our actions will show it. And when we fight the flesh demands and make flesh sacrifices to read and study the Word of God and to speak (pray) to God, the flesh is conquered, and the spirit has more influence over the soul. And our actions will show it.
We can command our soul and tell our mind, will and emotions, “My soul, wait thou only upon God...” just as David did. We want what God wants for us. David said, “...for my expectation is from Him.” God always has a better expectation for us than we do. Our expectation is small and earthy. His is eternal and priceless.
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