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ARE YOU TRIPOLAR?
Kris Vallotton
February 7, 2017
MY CRASH OF CONFUSION
When I crashed
a few years back, I could not figure out what was wrong with me. My soul was in deep grief, my body was exhausted and my spirit was under constant assault. The turmoil over where my problem originated was so confusing that it literally accounted for half my stress. Have you ever dealt with this kind of confusion? Maybe you feel like you’ve been climbing a mountain of discouragement for as long as you can remember, and the oxygen is getting thinner and thinner and you’re only getting weaker trying to figure out what’s wrong? Or maybe you’re doing okay, coping but not thriving because you’ve felt “off” for a while?
3 PLACES WE THINK FROM
In my season from hell I learned that our spirit, soul and body are so intricately intertwined that it’s impossible to affect one part without influencing the other two parts. We often talk about the spirit, soul and body as if they live in separate boxes, but the reality is that life does not really happen that way. Problems can originate in one dimension of our being, but before long, we experience resulting symptoms in all three realms of our personhood. Let’s take a look at how we can “think” from our triune being:
1. Thinking from Your Body
We are all aware that certain chemicals, foods and sleep habits affect our physical or natural mind. Our natural mind is also quite busy orchestrating an entire ecosystem that is literally keeping us alive. It is accomplishing all of this below the conscious level. Amazing!
Our natural mind knows things that it does not make us conscious of, unless it needs our input. But if our body encounters a battle that requires our attention, it sends us a signal in the form of pain so that we can participate in dealing with the illness.
2. Thinking from Your Soul
We often call this dimension of thinking “processing from the heart.” I am fully convinced that our heart (soul) knows things that the other two elements are completely unaware of. The heart feels its way through life and is sensitive to emotions.
It is the home where things like love, passion and mercy live. If, for example, someone hurts your feelings or a person close to you dies, it affects the way you think. Your soul deals with hurts and disappointments all the time. But when it gets overwhelmed and needs your help to heal, it often sends signals in the form of emotional pain such as depression, anger or grief.
3. Thinking from Your Spirit
Paul said, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23). In other words, we have the ability to think from the spirit of our minds. Our spirit deals with the dark world all the time because Jesus said the accuser of the brethren is hammering away at our spirit day and night (see Revelation 12:10).
Because God designed us to be spiritually resilient, most of the time we are unaware that this level of negativity is happening around us until our spirit needs to get our attention. When it needs reinforcements, one of the main ways our spirit communicates with our conscious mind is through dreams. Have you had any crazy dreams of being chased lately? Maybe your spirit is trying to tell you something. You may need to fast, pray or focus on some aspect of spiritual warfare that aids your spirit in warding off a demonic attack.
THE WHOLE HEALER
Let’s take a look at how Jesus interacted with the lame man at the gate Beautiful in the book of Acts: “But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!’ And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:6–8).The man walked because he got physically healed. He leapt because he got emotionally healed. And he praised God because he got spiritually restored! The Lord works to restore the whole person because merely healing our bodies would be only a temporary, partial solution.
So today I pray that you’re encouraged by this revelation of being a triune being! I pray that as you read this you’ll have clarity as to what part of your being could use some extra attention or love. What is your body, soul or spirit saying to you today?
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