the SOUL connection

[Shmanu YAH]

shalom mishpacha, "All praises and glory to the Most High YHWH" our creator, our sustainer and from where all real blessings come.

I pray all are allowing only the Most High to order your steps.

In this overdue message I'd like to engage in something I should have earlier to bring clarity to a definition that has left many uncertain ... "the SOUL".

If you ask most people of various faiths, religions, ages, races, creeds, colors, economic classes etc. of what the soul is, you will get enough answers to make your eyes cross. Anyway lets look at the definition of "SOUL" aka "nephesh", for a start In Strong's Concordance he defines it as Life-Force and Immaterial part of a person (non-physical). We can't really argue with this because when we first see this word in b'reshith 2:7 "And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." we see here man was not alive or energized until life was breathed into him, he was just a lump of misty-wet dust (when you get a chance, figure out what color wet soil is).

If we stop right here at Life-Force then we haven't gone into the deeper understanding we truly need to understand why this word is the scriptures over 450 times. We should understand that the spirit /ruach is our breath, the basar /body is our flesh and the thoughts/ m'ach'shaba are our plans /designs /purposes.

For some reason the m'ach'shaba (Strong's 4284) seems to constantly be overlooked but to understand the full definition of the SOUL it can't be discounted. Enough with the etymologies let me get to the point I'm presenting: For mankind to be WHOLE he must consist of body, spirit, thoughts all connected together by some force that is not material, ah ha ... the SOUL!

If we take the time to realize, we see this connection is the MOST important in our existence. The soul not only connects us together, it should connect us to YHWH! If we allow our soul to be taken over by the adversary then he will have the mastery of our connecting forces to use for his own evil will. Make NO mistake about it, we are responsible for our connection!

Like I said earlier if you ask various people to define "soul" you will get various answers but lets plug this understanding in and see if it lights up! 1st. Thes. 5:21- "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.". We should be able to replace the word soul in most scripture with either the word connection or phrase "connection to YHWH", It's listed over 450 time but lets look at a few torah examples: Gen. 2:7 "And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen 17:14 "And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant". Exodus 30:12 When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to those that are numbered of them, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto YHWH .... Lev. 23:30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any manner of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his people. Numbers 19:13 Whosoever toucheth a dead person, the body of a man that hath died, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of YHWH; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel.... Deut. 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but make them known unto thy children and thy children's children; these are a very few examples but they should show the point that we have longtime overlooked, "a connecting force".

We are all familiar what went down in the garden of Eden after Elohym said in Gen 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". We know they didn't fall over dead on the spot but they certainly lost their perfect connection with YHWH because they were now separated from him because h'shatan was effective in his effort to seperate them from their maker but we now have the wisdom of Paul as he wrote to those in Corinth in 1st Cor. 2:11 "that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices".

We all can also call to mind the instructive scripture from Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.... " this and previous verses are establishing that each man is accountable for his own transgressions and those that are trangressors, their connection to YHWH is now separated. As we move forward to the h'brit chadasha we also see from Yahushua h'mashiac first in Mat. 10:28 "And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in gehenna" replace the word soul with "connection to YHWH" and you can easily see a deeper definition. Here are some other scripts you can do the same, Mark 8:36-37 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Luke 10:27 And he answering said, "Thou shalt love YAHWAH thy Elohim with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.". John 2:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. We can't argue with the soul /nephesh being a Life-Force, but it is a Life-force that holds our components together and above all needs to constantly be connected to the our creator YHWH

..... selah, shalom

[Emanuel and Tracy Cain]

very well explained and great example of replacing soul with the true meaning connected to YAHWAH to gain better understanding Todah Robah Elder