What Is the Human Spirit?

Receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior is a significant event. But have you ever wondered what happens next?

The good news is that being saved is only the first step in your Christian walk. There is so much more to being a Christian! Jesus Christ is now alive within you, and He desires to develop a personal relationship with you. To accomplish this, you need to understand the importance of your human spirit, as stated in the Bible.

Although many people misinterpret humans as being spirit beings, we actually have a human spirit but we are not a spirit. The Bible makes several references to man having a human spirit.

In Genesis 2:7, the Bible states that God created humans with three components, including a spirit. "God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."

God created man's physical body from the dust of the ground. Then God breathed into his nostrils, and he became a living soul. This, of course, refers to man's soul, which is made up of the mind, emotions, and willpower.

Now, where is the human spirit in this verse? We don’t see the words human spirit, but what we do see is the breath of life. In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, the word translated as breath is neshamah. This same Hebrew word is translated as spirit in Proverbs 20:27, which says: 

By this we can see that when God breathed into man, man’s human spirit came into existence. Our human spirit is the deepest part of our being. 

But why did God create us with a human spirit? Isn’t having a body and soul enough for us to exist? 

Why we have a spirit?

God created our spirit in order for us to communicate and receive Him. Our bodies and souls each have a specific purpose; yet, only our spirit can communicate with God. Scripture, such as John 4:24, emphasizes the need of worshiping God in spirit and in truth.
To communicate with—or worship—God, who is Spirit, we must employ our spirit.
The operation of a radio is a good example of our spirit's unique ability to communicate with and receive God. When a radio is turned on and tuned properly, it can detect and interpret invisible radio waves in the air.

Our human spirit is like a radio, and God is like the radio waves. Our spirit is the part of our being that corresponds to what God is, so we have to use our spirit in order to communicate with Him.

What makes our human spirit so important is that God wants to fill us with himself. Our Christian life begins with our human spirit, as we see from John 3:6: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

As it relates to a born-again Christian, the first Spirit mentioned here is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the second spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with God’s life, the uncreated eternal life. Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, natural life) as the new source and new element of a new person. Note: We are born-again in SEED FORM.

The moment we believe in Jesus, His Spirit enters into our spirit. When we’re regenerated, we’re born of God; we receive His divine, eternal life in our spirit; and we become His children. 

The Lord is love, light, peace, rest, comfort, strength, our Shepherd, our refuge, and so much more. And because He’s now living in our spirit, we can experience and enjoy all He is to us right now, not just at some point in the future.

Now that we know this let us grow in intimacy with him, after all, scriptures states we are to be imitators of Christ, created to be conformed into his image.

2 Peter 3:18 AMP- but grow [spiritually mature] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory (honor, majesty, splendor), both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.