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Understanding the 3 Dimensions of Your Will: Conscience, Reason & Appetite

by Everest Alexander  
5/28/2008 / Christian Living

Man is tri-partite, made up of three aspects, the spirit, the soul, and the body. The Bible says, "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Th 5:23

Each aspect of your being has a will and a voice of its own.

The will of the born again spirit is to do what's morally right and the voice of the spirit is Your Conscience. So, the Conscience discerns between right and wrong and always counsels you to do what's right or righteous in the eyes of God.

The will of the soul is to do what sounds reasonable or makes sense and the voice of the soul is Your Reason. So, Reason discerns between what makes sense and what doesn't and always counsels you to do the sensible or reasonable thing.

The will of the body is to do what feels good or gives pleasure and the voice of the body is Your Appetite. So, The Appetite discerns between what feels good and what doesn't and always counsels you to do what gives you pleasure or makes you feel good.


Conscience: The Voice of Your Spirit

The voice of your spirit is your Conscience.

Your conscience determines what is morally right or wrong. It's important to understand that the only time your conscience functions properly is when your spirit has become regenerated or born again.

The Bible says that when we're born physically we're born dead in sins, (Eph 2:5) this means that our spirit is separated from God and the life and nature of God is not in us. Therefore, our concept of right and wrong is faulty and not always in line with God and operating according to His standard of righteousness.

In fact, the word of God says that before we're born again we are enemies of God in our minds, (Col 1:21) which means in most situations we're going to be disagreeing with God's will and not acting according to His ways at all. This is the reason Jesus said, "You must be born again." John 3:7

When we're born again, however, our spirit becomes totally recreated in the image of God and cannot disagree with God any longer but is always in perfect agreement with His will. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 1Jo 3:9

This scripture refers to the change in your spirit, it means that your nature is permanently sealed once you're born again and can never be changed back to what it was before. You can never go back to being an enemy of God and return to a sinful inner condition! However, we're only talking about your spirit here, not your soul or your body.

So, your spirit is recreated, your nature is changed thus your conscience, which is the voice of your spirit is also transformed. It can no longer disagree with the will of God, meaning that whenever your conscience speaks it must agree with God. It can never give you wrong counsel.

Your conscience, the voice of your born again spirit will always guide you into the will of God. It will always tell you to do the right thing because it's now governed by the divine nature of God!

The problem comes when we disregard that voice and give heed to another.


Reason: The Voice of Your Soul

The voice of your soul is your Reason.

Reason determines what makes sense and what doesn't. When you're born again your spirit is instantly transformed from Adamic to Christlike; from unholy to holy; from sinful to sinless! But your soul is not affected in the same way. The transformation of your soul takes a lifetime to be perfected.

What is the soul anyway?

Your soul is your mind - Nothing less nothing more!

It's made up of your intellect, emotions and will. In the Old Testament, Gen 2:7 the bible says, God breathed the breath of life into man and man became a living soul. The word "soul" is translated from the Hebrew "Nephesh" and means "mind or mental creature. " For a detailed explanation of the similarities and differences between the spirit and the soul see my free book: Understanding the Difference Between the Spirit and the Soul.

The mind or soul is divided into two main layers, the conscious and subconscious.

What is your conscious mind?

In your conscious mind you are aware of the information you're processing. You are using your emotions to interpret data and your thoughts to analyze data so that you can arrive at a sensible conclusion. After arriving at your conclusion you are then required to make a decision based on your conclusion. A decision is a call to action and this is the job of your will To decide on a course of action based on the conclusion you formed by the processing of the available facts.

What is your sub-conscious mind?

The prefix "sub" means "under" so the sub-conscious mind is that which lies beneath or forms the foundation for the conscious mind. It is the root of our thoughts, emotions and will. Paul, the apostle said, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind," Eph 4:23. In this scripture the word "mind" means the thoughts, emotions and will and the word "spirit" means "a vital principle that gives life!"

So, "the spirit of your mind" can be interpreted as "the vital principle that gives life to your thoughts, emotions and will!" Thus, I believe that both the "spirit of your mind" and your "sub-conscious mind" are one and the same thing.

This is what Paul is telling us to renew, not just our conscious thoughts but also the thing that gives life to them! The underlying principle upon which our thoughts are based! The essential principle that defines how and why we think the way we do. This is called our philosophy of life.

Our philosophy of life is formed from practiced thought and emotional patterns fed from the training we received as children and whatever was passed on to us genetically.

This is the thing that's hidden but potent, which feeds our thoughts and emotions and animates our will to act. The deep part of us that most of us aren't even aware of, yet is so powerful that it, more than anything else determines how we act in any given situation.

Our philosophy of life controls us and is the essence of our sub-conscious mind. This is why Paul insists we renew our entire minds, because when our Reason voices the will of our soul it's drawing on all the information given to it by both the conscious and the sub-conscious mind. For more information on how to renew your conscious and sub-conscious mind see my book: Understanding The 3 Levels of Salvation: Spirit, Soul & Body.


Appetite: The Voice of Your Body

The voice of your body is your Appetite.

The Appetite determines what feels good or gives pleasure and what doesn't. This is not always a bad thing because if your appetite didn't tell you that you were hungry and needed food to eat, you could starve to death and never feel discomforted. If Adam never felt sexual attraction for Eve there would have been no motivation for him to pursue her sexually and the human race would have been doomed from the beginning. Every desire has its place.

The will of your body is governed by the pleasure/pain principle and your Appetite is very clear and distinct in voicing what it finds pleasurable as opposed to what it finds painful. The problem is that your Appetite is not equipped to police itself and if not checked will always go into extremes of pleasure, which unfortunately leads to pain, the very thing it was trying to avoid in the first place.

So, we need a system of checks and balances to regulate our decision-making process to ensure we arrive at our desired result every time.

Enter your Conscience and your Reason, these provide the checks and balances for your Appetite to function properly. To explain how they work together the illustration I like to use is the average person facing a typical Monday morning workday.

Illustration

What usually happens is the alarm rings, your desire for more sleep kicks in and your Appetite says, "We are going to remain right here in this nice, warm, comfortable bed and sleep for the next couple of hours because this feels sooo good."

Your Reason declares, "Oh no, we won't, we've got to get up and go to work because if we don't it'll be a poor reflection on our work ethic and in the long run may jeopardize our job therefore it makes sense to get up and go to work even though we don't feel like it."

Your Appetite may begin to argue with your Reason so your Conscience weights in saying, "Yes, I agree with Reason we need to get up and go to work because it is the right thing to do, we are expected to be at our job at a particular time and we're being paid to do that so it's morally wrong to shirk our responsibility despite how good this warm bed feels, let's get up!"

Does this sound familiar?

This is a perfect illustration of how your 3 wills and 3 voices work with each other to help you come to a conclusion and make a decision.

Another Illustration

It gets a little trickier sometimes especially when processing instructions from God. For instance, you may read in the Book of Malachi where God says you need to pay tithes and give financial offerings through your local church. But when you look at your paycheck and you look at your bills there is conflict because there's no way you can pay 10% of your salary, give an offering and still have enough to take care of your bills.

So, your inner conversation might go like this: Your Appetite which is always concerned with comfort and pleasure may be saying we need that money to buy food and pay the electric bill so we can live comfortably.

Your Reason may concur saying we can't afford to pay tithes and give an offering because we won't have enough to pay our bills and God will not want us to be irresponsible and not pay what we owe. That just doesn't make any sense.

But your Conscience is saying I understand all your arguments and they sound reasonable but the word of God is clear on this point and you know on the inside that we need to obey God and do the right thing, trusting Him to take care of us financially.

The key to making the right decision every time is to always let your conscience be your guide.

Conclusion

In closing, let me reiterate that the only time your Conscience consistently works accurately is after you become born again and have your inner nature changed. Before being born again it may work right one moment and faulty the next and cannot be totally trusted!

This is why God promised, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you... I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Eze. 36:26-27

And this is why the Apostle John can now say, "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 1st John 3:9

Through the Prophet Ezekiel God promised to give us a new spirit and cause us to walk righteously, this refers to the process of becoming born again or having our spirit regenerated and having our nature transformed from human to divine, so that our conscience can function properly.

That's why in 1st John he can now say, we have been born of God or born again, so we cannot sin. This phrase "cannot sin" simply means that our conscience can no longer lead us into unrighteousness; it must always lead us to do the right thing because our conscience is the voice of our spirit and our spirit has been reborn in the very image and with nature of God.

The only time your Reason works accurately is after your mind becomes renewed according to the principles of the kingdom of God as outlined in the Holy Bible.

This is obviously why Paul the apostle instructs us so many times to pay attention to the renewing of our mind.

He said, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." Rom 12:2. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; Eph 4:23. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Php 2:5.

He also said, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Ro 8:7. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Ro 8:6.

Scripture shows us that the un-renewed mind of a Christian is considered carnal or childish while the renewed mind is considered spiritual or mature. These scriptures also show us that until both the conscious and sub-conscious mind is sufficiently renewed there will always be a conflict between knowing what is right and choosing to do what is right.

The key to possessing a spiritual or mature mind is to feed it daily with the word of God and to practice consistent obedience to the Holy Spirit. (See my article "Understanding the 7 Practical Approaches to the Word of God")

The only time your Appetite will function properly is when you have mastered the art of controlling the passions and desires of your body.

Toward this end the Apostle Paul declares, "But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh]. Rom 7:23 (TAB)

What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? Rom 7:24 (CEV)

O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Rom 7:25 (TAB)

Then he went on further to say, Rom 13:14 (TAB) "But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it... 1st Cor. 9:27 (TAB) "I keep my body under control and make it my slave, so I won't lose out after telling the good news to others. 1st Cor. 9:27 (CEV)

And finally, ""...Make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts)."

We understand, therefore, that controlling the desires of the body is consistent with Jesus' teaching on taking up our cross daily and dying to self so that we may truly live.

So, we can clearly see from scripture that man is tri-partite and has 3 distinct wills and 3 distinct voices to express those wills. Therefore, I join with Brother Paul in praying, "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1st Thess. 5:23. Amen.

Everest John Alexander is a Minister/Writer/Entrepreneur in public ministry for over 16 years, pastoring for 4 years. He's married with two kids and has written five books published online at: www.CheapChristianEbooks.com where you can get FREE Ebooks, Articles, Poems, Quizzes, Jokes, Riddles etc

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