THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL GODS IMAGE AND LIKENESS I am continuing today in the discussion of the salvation and healing of the soul. We have seen that God has created us to function as a spirit and a soul and a body – three parts that are to work in harmony together within each person, and in harmony with the will of God, so that we can fulfill the design and purpose for our lives. We saw that these three different parts of us interact with each another in a predictable and logical way. The spirit is the life force of us as a human being, the individual and unique essence of who we are – no two human beings are created spiritually identical – not even identical twins. And each person’s unique spirit reflects a shadow of God’s nature - made in the image of God - So God created man in his own image, in the image(selem) of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). Our human spirit was created with two parts - the mind and the heart. The mind seeks understanding — what’s true or false, right or wrong — and through that process, we form a conscience. The heart, meanwhile, is where our desires, emotions, and beliefs live. What the mind accepts as truth, the heart embraces as faith. But here’s the dilemma - with so many different minds in the world, there are countless versions of what people believe to be true. And with those truths come just as many belief systems that people place their faith in. So, in practice, truth and faith have become relative values, shaped by the culture, religion, or philosophy that a person grows up in. (36,000 Christian denominations). When it comes to our inner spiritual life, the mindset and heart beliefs of our spirit are expressed in our soul, which becomes the expression of who we are and how we are seen in the world. I'm just going to stop there because I just said something that I'd like to clarify. I said 36,000 denominations, and which one has the truth and how do we come to the unity of the faith? I'll tell you what it won't be – It won’t be by having exactly the same doctrine on every single verse in the Scripture - it won't be that, but you know what it will be?  It will fulfill Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13 that says ‘until we all come in the unity of the faith’ and there will be the one ‘yes ‘concerning the expression of Jesus as the one who is living through us and we will have a different flavour according to our gifts and our persuasions of certain things - that don’t have to cause arguments! It is more like saying  ‘that's an interesting perspective’ - but what will be unified is the life of Jesus being seen in his people in the unity of the Spirit because the Spirit is expressed through the soul as who we are. And we come into the unity of that expression as being the life of Jesus flowing like a river through us.  So therefore, the soul reflects the conscience and the belief systems and the soul must take responsibility for those choices. I know that in the denomination I grew up in I had a conscience about not being allowed to eat meat on Friday, and my friends said I was stupid to have that belief - but I did that as unto the Lord because I thought that's what God wanted. And there are many things like that that people do to honour God, and the Bible says in Romans 14 ‘let each man be fully persuaded in his own mind’.  People do things to honour God and perhaps some only eat vegetables while others will eat meat - and others will see one day as being the only day of the Sabbath while others will see all days alike - let each one be persuaded in their own mind, says Paul (Romans 141-6). And it says, ‘but don't put somebody in jeopardy to their faith by demanding that they believe exactly as you’. You can do a thing but if they don't have faith for that it is nonetheless the Lord who sees where their heart is. And Paul said to the people who are able to eat meat offered to idols ‘there's no such thing as an idol’ but he also said but don't flaunt