156. 6. Our spirits are our minds and whatever comes from them. Our "spirit" really means nothing else but our mind. Our mind is what lives on after death. It is then called a spirit. If it is good, it is called an angelic spirit and later on an angel. If it is evil, it is called a satanic spirit and later on a satan. For each one of us, our mind is our inner self, our true self. It lives inside our outer self that constitutes our body. When our body is cast aside, which death does for us, we are in a complete human form.
People are wrong, then, to believe that our mind exists only in our head. Our mind is present in our head only in its primary structures. Everything that we think with our intellect and do from our will first emanates from these primary structures. In the rest of our body, our mind is present in extensions of these primary structures that have been designed to allow us sensation and action. Because our mind is inwardly connected to the parts of our body, our mind supplies those parts with sensation and motion and also inspires awareness as if our body thought and acted on its own, although every wise person knows this is not how it is.
Now, because our spirit thinks with its intellect and acts with its will, and our body thinks and acts not on its own but with the help of our spirit, it follows that our "spirit" means our intelligence and our type of love, as well as whatever emanates from our love and intelligence and has an effect.
Many passages in the Word make clear that our "spirit" means the nature of our mind. When I quote only a few of these passages, anyone will be able to see that this is exactly what "spirit" means. The following are just a few of the many:
And Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. (Exodus 31:3)
Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel that there was "an excellent spirit" of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom in him (Daniel 5:12).
Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom. (Deuteronomy 34:9)
Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezekiel 18:31)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of the heavens consists of such people. (Matthew 5:3)
I live among people with a beaten and humble spirit so that I may revive the spirit of the lowly. (Isaiah 57:15)
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. (Psalms 51:17)
I will give a cloak of praise to replace a constricted spirit. (Isaiah 61:3)
And so on.
"Spirit" can also mean the nature of a corrupt and unjust mind, as the following passages make clear:
He spoke to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit. (Ezekiel 13:3)
Conceive garbage, give birth to stubble; in your spirit, fire will consume you. (Isaiah 33:11)
A man who is a wanderer in his spirit and who babbles a lie. (Micah 2:11)
A generation whose spirit was not steadfast with God. (Psalms 78:8)
A spirit of promiscuity. (Hosea 5:4; 4:12)
To melt every heart and constrict every spirit. (Ezekiel 21:7)
What has come up in your spirit will never be done. (Ezekiel 20:32)
Provided there is no guile in their spirit. (Psalms 32:2)
The spirit of Pharaoh was disturbed. (Genesis 41:8)
Likewise the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:3). These and many other passages make it obvious that our "spirit" means our mind and its characteristics.
