Do You Have a Spirit Guide?

The Lone Ranger rides again! There is a new Lone Ranger series on the Warner-Brothers TV network. The Lone Ranger was very popular when I was young. The Ranger and his faithful sidekick Tonto provided a lot of western action. The new Lone Ranger has long hair and looks kind of young (O well, when you get to my age, a lot of people look pretty young!), but the first episode establishing the Lone Ranger history seemed well done.
One part of the drama caught my interest. I am always looking for Christian application when I read stories or see them on TV. As Tonto saved the young man and nursed him back to health in the Apache tribe, it was decided that Tonto would teach the young man in the ways of an Apache warrior so that, as the Lone Ranger, the man could avenge the ambush killing of the group of Texas Rangers that he had joined.
Tonto says to the Lone Ranger in training, "You must come to realize that you are made up of body, mind and spirit." I thought to myself, "Wow! If only more people realized that they are composed of body, soul (mind) and spirit! This is a good spiritual truth presented here in this story!"
The Bible says that man is composed of spirit, soul (mind) and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). I like to say that I AM a spirit, I HAVE a soul, and I LIVE IN a body. The spirit is that part of us from God's realm of the spirit world. The soul is the intellect, emotions and will of the person located in the mind. And we all know about the material body.
The ancient Greek thinkers spoke of man as a "body and soul" giving the soul spiritual qualities. This has carried over into much Christian thinking and church teaching. But nowhere in the Bible do we find the words: "immortal soul". In fact, we find many references to "souls" dying. In the first chapter of Genesis, the Hebrew word translated "soul" is used four times for lower life forms before it is ever used in connection with man.
Continuing on in the story, Tonto says to the Lone Ranger, "Your spirit is there to control your mind and body and to guide you into proper actions in your life." I thought, "Boy, those Apaches sure seem to have it right!"
But then all the right ideas break down as that great white horse "Silver" comes on the scene. Silver seems to have superhuman senses and Tonto suggests that Silver is the Lone Ranger's spirit guide! Wrong! We hear much about the wrong kind of "spirit guides" in the New Age movement. Animals and birds do NOT have spirits as the Apache doctrine tries to put forth. Animals and birds have souls (minds) and bodies but not spirits.
God DID give us our spirit to function as the control center to guide our soul and body. Soul and body are the means by which we express ourselves and live our fully active lives. But as long as we are confused between what we are in our inner spirit centers, with the ways by which we express ourselves through outer soul and body, we are in trouble.
MANY HAVE SPIRIT AND SOUL SO MIXED UP THAT IT TAKES A REVELATION FOR US TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE!
In simple terms, in our spirits we love. By our mind and body actions we express our love. In spirit, we are knowers. Through soul-mind we express our knowledge by our reasoning faculty. So, as Christians with Christ indwelling our spirits, soul and body are the only precious means by which God can express Himself through us.
We get in trouble when we mistake the variable emotions of the soul for our unchanging spirit center. The emotions of the soul – pleasure, pain, fears, confidences, feelings of happiness or sadness, can either help us or hurt us in accepting guidance from the Spirit of Christ joined to our human spirit.
The same with our soul in its thinking and reasoning activities. All kinds of disturbing or evil thoughts can be left over in our minds from our preconversion days, or can even pour into us daily as Christians. These are the influences of the outer material appearances of things on our mental attitudes, with all of the doubts and questionings they may bring.
Hebrews 4:12 states: The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
This verse compares soul and spirit to "the thoughts and intents of the heart." Intents are our spirit – the fixed purposes of our core being. Thoughts are our soul – varied opinions about the raw material presented.
It is easy to be drawn strongly by some outward desire of the soul and to seem helpless against it. But in my spirit center, where Christ is, I know my real desire is His will and He keeps His firm hold on me.
So we see ourselves in our spirit center, where we and Christ are ONE in spirit, and all things are ours in Him. Soul and body are our wonderful means of endless spirit expression.
And having grasped, by the revelation of the Word, the dividing asunder between soul and spirit, I do not fear my soul and body or, even more foolishly, wish I was without their disturbing reactions. NO. I thankfully see myself as a whole person, God's whole person, God's child in His Family. And I see that He has equipped me with these fascinating means of living out my full life as a whole self – spirit, soul and body – in ALL of my human activities.
Equally, I totally enjoy the fact that He has me safely in hand in my spirit. I have made the choice for Jesus Christ as my Savior and, in return, God has made the eternal choice to recreate me as His eternal child. I receive correction for the temporary surges of soul and body diversions. My deep, still spirit calms the surges as I am "kept by the power of God."
May all Christians get it very clear that emotions of all kinds are soulish, whether high or low. Thoughts of all kinds are reasonings of the soul. These intellectual and emotional factors of the soul are MEANT to be guided and used by the human spirit joined to Christ. We must daily CHOOSE to have this Christ control.
All false religion is built on elements of truth. The Apaches and the New Agers may have figured out the tripartite composition of man, but then they have gone off path with this spirit guide from animals or from special "channelers".
Remember WHO you are at the center of your being – a living union with Jesus Christ. Those who have not accepted Christ have another "spirit guide" – "You are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do" (John 8:44).
When we come to understand and really recognize the old spirit guide and the new Spirit Guide, then and only then have we begun the spiritual growth in the lifestyle of the children of God.
The Lone Ranger better find out the true source of spiritual guidance. Silver is no SPIRIT GUIDE! Psalm 20:7 says: "Some trust in chariots, and some trust in HORSES, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God."

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