The Spirit and Personality of Man
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, “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, “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).
References: Friedman, H. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research. (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson unk. (2012). The synagogue, church of all nations. Information about T.B. Joshua Retrieved from http://www.scoan.org/ Hoffman, F. (1993, May 30). We should remember we are not islands unto ourselves. Retrieved from http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s30may93.html