If you lose your soul, you lose your HUMAN life. The only reason your spirit can live in your body and influence its activities is because of your soul. As long as you have a soul, you have a life as a human. So, this study will mainly refer to your soul as your human life. After you leave this planet, you will have a heavenly, eternal LIFE. If you submit your SOUL to Jesus, you will be submitting your BODY to Him. This is because your human life (SOUL) is expressed through your body. Jesus will be taking you into the issues of your human life (SOUL) and your human BODY.

Salvation is God’s miracle for turning your heart (emotions), mind (thoughts), soul (human life), and strength (will) toward Him and His provisions; however, your body didn’t get turned; it still has a SINFUL NATURE in it. The reason you are still having trouble with marriage and other issues that aren’t good for you is because your body is fighting you. When you submit your soul or human life to Jesus, He will help you win over your human body.

Your body is still CONNECTED to the things of the world and can still feel the temptations of the devil. It still craves the things that bring it pleasure, even though they have horrible side effects. Your brain, which is a part of your body, still remembers all the pleasure sin brings. Your mind, which is a part of your spirit, loves the things of your heavenly Father. So, here’s what the Bible explains is going on with this situation. Rom 7:23 (NIV) But I see another law at work in the members of my BODY, waging war against the law of my MIND and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

Making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members: The words, “Making me” are indicating that the real you is your MIND; this is because your mind is a part of you, a spirit being. BUT, the real issue here is that your BODY is winning over your MIND, making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Learning how to submit your body to Jesus is a VERY important thing.

Your body’s desires, needs, and demands are animalistic, selfish, and self-centered. And, your body remains susceptible to the world system and the temptations of the devil. If you, as a Christian, continue to respond to its cravings, you will be constantly living far below God’s provisions. Therefore, Jesus is leading you into a submission of your body to Him which will help solve this problem.

One of your heart’s principles makes it difficult for you to break free from your body’s cravings; and, you have accepted this principle as an absolute--Your mind has given your heart the command that your body is to be kept happy. Up until now, you have always gone against anything that tried to thwart the requirement of keeping your body happy. You sinned against your conscience; you rejected friends, family, and society if they tried to get in between you and your body’s happiness. If they tried to force you, you would lie, cheat, sneak around, threaten people, and do whatever it took to make sure that, that one rule was never broken.

If happiness for your body is still an absolute of your heart, there are some rules of Jesus that may really make it nervous. Jesus said in Luke 12:23 (NIV): “Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.” How are you going to start living a life through this body that is responding to God’s love for you? If you don’t start living a life through this body that is responding to God’s help, you are going to continue to have trouble with marriage and many other issues.

Here is God’s plan for setting you free from your struggles with marriage: Heb 10:22 (NIV) Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our HEARTS sprinkled to cleanse us from a GUILTY conscience and having our BODIES washed with pure water. Let Jesus help you take a look at this Scripture a little bit at a time so you can see what it is going to take.

Let us draw near to God: You learned how to open the door of your heart; and, this was done by the process of drawing near to God. Drawing near to God is accomplished by you spending more time with Him. Spending more time with God means you spend more time reading your Bible and studying; it means church attendance; it means you reading good Christian literature like these studies; it means you listening to more Christian music; it means you spending more time in prayer; and it means you talking with others about the things of God.

Your body isn’t going to like being exposed to all this Christianity. And, your heart isn’t going to like making your body do things that make it unhappy. There will be times when you find yourself feeling like you need a break from the things of God; you will feel over saturated with spiritual issues; you will crave something worldly or entertaining for your body. You will try to read the Bible more, go to church, study things like these studies, listen to more Christian music, pray more, and talk to more people about God; but, you will experince a battle between your MIND and your BODY. Unless you use the proper procedures, you WILL lose the battle.

Drawing near to God can be much like going on a diet. Before the diet, you liked food a lot; but, during the diet you started CRAVING food; all the sudden food became awesome! Even if you went on a diet that let you eat plenty of certain foods, you would still crave those foods you were not allowed to eat. As in the diet, the success of you winning over your body will depend on the magnitude of your resolve with God.

Will you DEEPLY DISIRE God, INTENSLY STUDY the Bible, PASSIONATELY PRAY for being able to submit your body, FIX YOUR EYES on Jesus for faith so you can BELIEVE you have the power to submit your body, LOVE ENOUGH to be willing to share your story with others, and then take FAITH-ACTION with Jesus and live on the basis of the fact that you have the power to submit your body to Him? The pain you are suffering from your problems with marriage will help you REALLY want (will) to get close to God. This will help you stay on target as you try to expose your heart to the new belief system of God.

With a sincere heart: Let Jesus help you take a look at the next point in this Scripture. You can do all the above list of Christian things out of ritual and still not draw near to God. You have to be doing all of these things as an honest seeking of God. You must be doing that list of things so that you can gain an intimate relationship with Him. Love isn’t a matter of doing something special for someone just so you can get what you want; love has to do with you enjoying someone’s company. Your need for help with marriage issues can get you started heading in the right direction. It can help you start looking to God for His help; but, God isn’t willing to just have a business relationship with you.

You have a lot of needs, problems, difficulties, and pain; but, that isn’t all there is to you; you are a person. When you go to the store to buy those things you NEED, your relationship with all those people running the store is very impersonal. You may be a very busy person and not want to stop and take time for any of them to talk to you and get to know you. This is just a BUSINESS relationship you have with all these people. Jesus wants to help you be able to move far beyond this type of relationship with Him.

God looks deep down inside you and sees the real longings of your heart. He cares about all your physical, emotional, financial, relational, and spiritual needs; but, He loves you. There is a need in you that is greater than all your other needs put together; you need to be loved. But, you have filled that need with a lot of other things; also you have walled off other areas of your heart; and additionally you have given up on some of your desires for love.

Some areas of your heart need to be EMPTIED so as to make room for love. Other areas need to have the walls REMOVED so love can come in. And certain areas need to be REOPENED to the desire for being loved. God is more than willing to care for you; but, He mainly insists on loving you. The wrong philosophies you have about your body, the barriers you have put up trying to make your body happy, your decisions to quit trying, and your filling your heart with body, world, and satanic things, are all keeping you from being able to be loved by God. These things are breaking your love connection between you and Him. How are you going to get healed from all these things?

Getting close to God is best accomplished by asking God to reveal some of your spiritual flaws. That doesn’t sound like a fun thing to be asking God to do. However, just like hunger and thirst are an unpleasant experience, so is God’s showing us areas that need spiritual growth. But, exposure to church, Christian provisions, and other Christian activities will not help you until you have a reason to be exposed to them. Your body is standing in the way of you being blessed by God.

The problem that helped you see your need for more of God’s help and a love relationship with Him was your issues with marriage. The pain that was coming from it and the desire to get healing in that area was the hungering and thirsting you needed; it pushed you in the direction of looking for answers. Praise God, you turned in the right direction to get your answers. God is going to reward you for hungering and thirsting for His answers to your needs. Mat 5:6 (NIV) BLESSED are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. And, He is going to do this by establishing a LOVE relationship with you.

Don’t get discouraged and frustrated with the fact that you have problems, flaws, shortcomings, and needs. They are the reason you are opening up to the fact that you need a love relationship with your heavenly Father. They have helped you look outside yourself for answers to these things.

When you have problems that you are looking for answers to, that is the only time exposure to God will start helping you.

People who just read and study their Bibles, go to church, listen to and sing Christian music, and have Christian fellowship without problems they are looking for the solutions to are going through a ritual. You are being real with God by bringing real problems to Him for solutions; that is having a sincere heart.