Psalm 31:5: “Into your hands I now entrust my spirit. O Lord, the God of faithfulness, you have rescued and redeemed me.”
Ministering to the Human Spirit
The practice of ministering to the human spirit has grown in popularity in the past couple of decades. Arthur Burk, founder of Sapphire Leadership Group (www.theslg.com) is one of the pioneers of this healing method which has proven effective; producing fruit beyond his spiritual great-grandchildren.
Ministering to the human spirit has been controversial so let me give you our perspective: We are strongly for it because we have received personal healing from it for over 10 years. There are more than 150 verses on “spirit” to study in the Bible, so we encourage you to develop your own theology on the subject.
That said, let’s look at some Scripture:
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23 The Passion Translation (TPT) “Now, may the God of peace and harmony set you apart, making you completely holy. And may your entire being—spirit, soul, and body—be kept completely flawless in the appearing of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.”
- 2 Corinthians 7:1 The Passion Translation (TPT) “Beloved ones, with promises like these, and because of our deepest respect and worship of God, we must remove everything from our lives that contaminates body and spirit, and continue to complete the development of holiness within us.”
Body, soul and spirit are distinctly separate from each other in these verses confirming that we are made 3-in-one, a trinity after the image of God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. Our body, soul and spirit are enmeshed with Holy Spirit when we become Spirit-filled. We can’t separate our spirit from the Spirit of God.
Our spirit has seven portions, and again this is something we know of from experience. Scripture alludes to this, but we have no hard-and-fast Word yet (See Isaiah 11:2 and Revelations). The seven portions are modeled after the seven grace-gifts or redemptive gifts found in Romans 12:6 which are Prophet, Servant, Teacher, Exhorter, Giver, Ruler and Mercy (We are not referring to the gifts in other portions of Scripture.).
We will have a dominant grace-gift and the others will vary in size and shape, for lack of a better description. This imbalance can cause challenges and sin in one’s life. Some portions may need a lot of healing and ministry while others don’t. Our goal in ministering to the human spirit is healing to become more like Jesus.
Guidelines for Ministry
Ministering to the human spirit is powerful and asking for permission before engaging in the seven portions is a great practice. We can always bless someone else’s spirit but the deeper work, in our opinion should be approached like we would a deliverance or counseling session with the person present. The work can be done face-to-face or not once permission is granted to minister to the seven portions.
These are some guidelines for ministering to the human spirit:
- Engage: Invite or call the person’s human spirit forward. It’s great to have a seer or intuitive person present if more discernment is needed. This is where we can call forward each of the seven portions or ask which portion would like to come forward and speak. Take care with this as some of the portions may be hurting or even aggressive.
- Affirm: Let the spirit know they are loved and safe. This is where we can exhort the spirit and affirm its work and care for the human body and soul. We can also engage in blessings here that will work to restoration and healing.
- Instruct: This is the teaching and faith-building moment. Speak the word over the spirit, share testimony, and counselling wisdom. Take care not to direct the spirit because this can become witchcraft easily. Let’s take a step back to directive prayer which is also witchcraft. When we pray for someone, we must stay away from telling God what we want the person to do. We can’t pray they fall in love with someone or have their boss fired. We can pray they find godly love and a better relationship with their boss.
- Direct (Occasionally with God’s command): This is only done when God is very specific about a word for direction. Best practice is to stay away from directing unless we know that we know that we know it’s of God.
Seven Letters
We challenge you to write seven letters in seven days to each portion of your spirit. Write, “Dear Prophet, etc.” Below are a few topics related to each portion with verses to get you started, or you can find one of your own or wait and listen to Jesus.
Day One
Letter to the Prophet: Design
- Romans 8:28: “So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”
Day Two
Letter to the Servant: Authority
- Matthew 10:1: “[Jesus Sends Out His Twelve Apostles] Jesus gathered his twelve disciples and imparted to them authority to cast out demons and to heal every sickness and every disease.”
Day Three
Letter to the Teacher: Responsibility
- Matthew 24:45: “[The Wise and Faithful Servant] ‘Who is the one qualified to oversee the master’s house? He will be a reliable servant who is wise and faithful, one he can depend on. The master will want to give him the responsibility of overseeing others in his house, for his servant will lead them well and give them food at the right time.”
Day Four
Letter to the Exhorter: Reality
- Proverbs 1:23: “Come back to your senses and be restored to reality. Don’t even think about refusing my rebuke! Don’t you know that I’m ready to pour out my spirit of wisdom upon you and bring to you the revelation of my words that will make your heart wise?”
Day Five
Letter to the Giver: Stewardship
- 1 Corinthians 9:17: “If it were my own idea to preach as a way to make a living, I would expect to be paid. Since it’s not my idea but God’s, who commissioned me, I am entrusted with the stewardship of the gospel whether or not I’m paid.”
Day Six
Letter to the Ruler: Freedom
- 1 Corinthians 6:12: “It’s true that our freedom allows us to do anything, but that doesn’t mean that everything we do is good for us. I’m free to do as I choose, but I choose to never be enslaved to anything.”
Day Seven
Letter to the Mercy: Fulfillment
- Luke 24:44: “Then he said to them, ‘Don’t you remember the words that I spoke to you when I was still with you? I told you that everything written about me would be fulfilled, including all the prophecies from the law of Moses through the Psalms and the writings of the prophets—that they would all find their fulfillment.’”
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Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.
The Passion Translation (TPT) The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017 by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC. Used by permission. All rights reserved. thePassionTranslation.com
Hardwired for Life 
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