Genesis 2:7. then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
God formed for the man a body. God gave the man breath, his spirit to animate that body. The result? Man became a living creature. A nepes hayyah.
Throughout the Old Testament this word nepes is translated as soul. We are living souls. Living throats. Throats? The word nepes comes from a root word connected to the throat, to breathing, and drinking water – all things that pass through the throat. Why would God call us living throats? Because we feel our thirsts through our throats. We long for air to breathe through our throats. Have you ever been so thirsty that you could do nothing else but seek water to refresh you? Have you ever been unable to breathe? I have. In that moment the only desire you have is for your airway to be cleared and for breath to return.
To be a throat is to be longing itself. Desire. We are desire. Consider the language David used to describe the desires of his soul.
Psalm 42:1. As a deer thirsts for flowing streams, so thirsts my soul for you, O God.
This longing and desire is so much a part of who we are that the word soul (nepes) is synonymous with life itself. In scripture the soul is the whole being, the whole life. The unity of spirit and body if you will.
Psalm 121:7. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life (nepes).
To image God is to be this living soul. To desire as he does. To long for love and respect the same way that God does within himself as a Trinity. But to image God is not to only desire, it is to have every desires satisfied by God. God is both desire and he is the satisfaction of all desire.
Psalm 107:9. For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
It is important to understand that though our desires are felt in the soul, they originate in the body and the spirit. God gave man a body that needs and thus longs for air, water, and food. And God created everything the man would need to live. Every longing satisfied in Eden. Air to breathe. Water to drink. Food to eat.
God also gave man a spirit full of spiritual needs and thus spiritual desires. The need and desire for love, for honor, for purpose, for communication, for fellowship. And God will provide Adam with everything he needs to be satisfied spiritually. Even the riskiest thing of all – free will. (More on this to come)
Christian, you ARE desire. Moreover, you are becoming like that which you desire most. Understand that we will always choose to do what we desire most. And what we choose to do becomes who we choose to be. To change your life, therefore, you have to change your desires.
Praise God that, in Christ, his indwelling life means that all our desires have been and can be changed. By placing the Spirit of love in us, God has changed our deepest desires to match the desires of Jesus himself. And one day, we will be given a new body as well, one that will see all of its longings satisfied in the presence of God.
Until that great day your soul is a battle ground of desire. Christ’s desire from the inside out through the Spirit. Selfish desires from the outside in through the body. It’s a mess. But it’s a blessed mess. A mess that God is using to transform your soul into the likeness of Christ.
Questions: Do you see yourself as desire? In what ways can you see your desires forming who you are? In what ways are you experiencing the desires of Jesus himself?
To Live is Christ 