The Spirit and Personality of Man Essay Example for Free

The Spirit and Personality of Man Essay The Spirit and Personality of Man In your opinion, how is the spirit and personality linked? Where does the idea of a spirit fit within your own theory of personality? What is the spirit of a man? Where did our personalities come from? What influences our personality? We know that our environment which includes our family, culture and communities’ influence us but what is behind our personalities? Should we think of the self as a complex chemical substance or as a spirit? We find ourselves identified with God in Genesis 1:26 (New International Version) in this book the Lord God is found speaking to other members of the Godhead and says, â€Å"Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule†, in Genesis 2:7 (NIV), he continues to tell us about our creation in the next chapter by saying, â€Å"the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. This tells us that our personality comes from God and that it is he that has made us and not we ourselves† Psalms 100: 3 (NIV). From a biblical standpoint of view it tells us that we come from God and that our personality is mostly spiritual since Adam had no life until God breathed into him and we likewise. When people die the body is lifeless and is returned to the ground. The Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities believe in the God of heaven (who is a Spirit, John 4:24) and that we took our personalities from him. On the flip side of that Satan worshipers believe that Satan (who is a spirit) is greater than God and they devoutly worship him and are lead by his Principalities, Power and Rulers in their everyday life. That seems to be about or close to half of the world’s population which believes that a spirit being controls their mind, will, and emotions. This informs us of where (I believe) we come from and where our personalities come from. No one, or no thing, is an island unto itself (Hoffman, 1993). Many people believe that we are sovereign unto ourselves, and that there is God’s ways (personality), my ways, and the Devils ways and that is not true. When Adam sinned against God, he gave authority over to Satan which allowed the kingdom of darkness a legal obligation to oppress, and possess me when they sin. Although we did not see happen physically nor do we see it reoccurring physically today, we see the result of the relationship between sin, personality and evil spirit. Every week or two I log on to scoan. org to watch Christian services by Prophet T. B. Joshua. Prophet T. B. Joshua is a Christian, minister, televangelist and faith healer. He is leader and founder of the ministry organization The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN) located in Lagos, Nigeria. Most of time during his services before he begins to pray he says, â€Å"Whatever your situation is, whatever your problem is, it might be sickness, disease, cancer, bad luck; whatever your problem, a Demon is behind it†. Then when he begins to lead his congregation in prayer people who are possessed or oppressed by demons began to crawl, slither, gag, spit, and sometimes even want to fight him. What about these people’s personality causes them to behave inhumanly? I would say they are faking but I grew up around the same church environment, plus it is common to read about Demons reacting to Jesus the same way in Mark 9:14 – 20 (New International Version), the man with a deaf and dumb spirit, Mark 1:23-24, King James Version, a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue, and the man with a legion of demons (Mark 5:15 NIV). When the man with the legion of demon had them cast out he was instantly changed from being a savage, into a man of solitude, a sound mind and peace. I do not understand how our spirit and personality actually connected but I do understand that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of darkness are in a war to save or destroy the spirit and personality of man. The bible says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.