Three.
It is a pattern for many things. For example, a fertilized chicken’s egg has three main parts: the embryo, the yolk for food, and the shell and albumin for protection. If you think about it, you can come up with some more examples of threes. Here’s my list:

-A plant has leaves, stem and roots;
-A tree has leaves, trunk and roots;
-A seed has an embryo, endosperm (food) and seed coat
-An atom has protons, neutrons, electrons;
-A flower has petals, anthers and ova;
-Earth has atmosphere, crust and core;
-A family has mother, father and children.

God’s Three Parts
Three is an important number in God’s Kingdom. The Bible tells us about God’s three parts.

God is a Father:
For the Father himself loveth you… (John 16:27)
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father… (2 Corinthians 1:2)

God is a Spirit:
In the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. (Genesis 1:2)
And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him… (Luke 3:22)

God is a Manifest Being:
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Joshua 5:15

What is the ‘Manifest Presence of God? In the New Testament, it is Jesus. In the Old Testament, before the human birth of Jesus, he appeared occasionally as an angel. You could always tell the difference between an angel, and the angel who was the Manifest Presence of God (Jesus before He came in the flesh) by whether it would receive worship or not. The Manifest Presence of God accepted worship, whereas regular angels did not. John, in the book of Revelation, was not allowed to worship the angel.

8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. Revelation 22:8,9

When the Captain of the Lord’s host appeared to Joshua in the verse above, He commanded Joshua to take off his sandals for the place where he walked was holy. This is the same message Moses received when he approached the burning bush. Both were the Manifest Presence of God, or Jesus as He appeared before His coming in the flesh.

God Imprinted His Nature
God is three parts. At the beginning of this article are some examples of how God imprinted his three-part nature on all of creation. Since this is so, we can assume that God imprinted His three parts on man, as well. What does this three-part nature look like in man? We can look at some clues to get an idea of this.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 1:26

For 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… Hebrews 4:12

1. Man’s Body – the dust of the ground

The human body is one of the most amazing pieces of work that you will ever see. The psalmist said,

I am fearfully and wonderfully made… (Psalm 139:14)

God formed man from the dust of the ground and made a wonderful and delightful place for his spirit to dwell while on the earth. Think about all your moving parts, the intricacy of your various systems, the imaginative and practical nature of every joint.

Your brain is more complex and versatile than any computer. It has the ability to create, perform complex tasks, store memories and so much more. A building the size of New York city could not house a computer big enough to do what your brain can do.

Your body is more intricate than even the most state-of-the-art building and all of the plans come from microscopic blueprints called DNA.

If you took all of the DNA from every person in the whole world and put it in a pile, it would take up the space of about half an aspirin tablet. God made this amazing molecule that could take a single human fertilized cell and from it create your liver, brain, heart, skin, and all of the various parts of you. Your body is the perfect home to live in while you are on the earth. Like any house, it needs constant maintenance, repairs from time to time, and there comes a time that it just can’t function as a house anymore.

2. Man’s Spirit – the breath of life
Scientists cannot explain the mystery of death. A person’s body can be kept functioning after death, but it does not put the life back into it. Once the spirit has left it’s house, the house becomes empty and dead.

It is your spirit that longs for and communes with God. It is your spirit that inhabits your body during this window in eternity called ‘time.’ It will eventually leave your body and either be drawn to light, warmth and love, or be repelled to darkness, cold and misery, depending on choices you have made on this earth.

3. Man’s Soul – the living soul
Then there is the third part of man: the living soul. How is your soul different from your spirit?

Your soul is the part of you that allows your body to communicate with this beautiful world that the Lord created for you to live in. It houses your five senses, your emotions, your personality; it is the seat of your will, and is the place where your character grows. You were created in the likeness of God. You have his character, his goodness, his mercy, his desires. These things come to you in seed form, and how you grow them in this life determines your ultimate character.

Why did God create the heavens and the earth and man, anyway? The Bible says of Adam and Eve that
… they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day… (Genesis 3:8)

They were accustomed to walking and talking with God every day. It was for this pleasure of fellowship and love, this relationship that God created his man.

God put His image into His man so that He could be on equal terms with him. Just as your own children are in your image, and you hope for the day that they will mature so that you can have a mature relationship, so God wants us to mature spiritually so that He can walk and talk with us again.

In the garden of Eden, Adam forsook God when he ate of the fruit. God said ‘don’t eat it’ but Adam believed a lie:

…then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil…. (Genesis 3:5)

So Adam ate the fruit. It was his lack of trust and disloyalty to God that destroyed his relationship with God. You can’t have a meaningful relationship with someone you don’t trust.

This was the sin nature that was imparted to the human race. We have difficulty trusting God. We trust the checkbook, we trust well-meant opinions, we trust anything and everything but God and God’s Word.

How do you learn to trust? That’s for another day.

Blessings to you,
Chandra Lynne