Dr. Mardee Alff Psy.D

Soul Peace Articles in "Jubilee, A Good News Publication" by Grace Ministries International, POBox 86, Monessen, PA 15062. jubileecontent@verizon.net

*The articles are available in both Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF and are accessed by clicking on the type of file you want.

SP1 Body Memories (Word) (PDF)

SP2 Body, Soul, and Spirit (Word) (PDF)

SP3 Soul Integration (Word) (PDF)
Getting to Know God Link:
http://home.earthlink.net/~skills4u/gettingtoknowgod/
SP4 Soul Protection (Word) (PDF)
SP5 Soul Treasures (Word) (PDF)

Experiencing Soul Integration

Introduction:

Who hasn’t experienced this human predicament? You are scheduled to do something by a certain time. But you don’t want to do it, and you are having trouble making yourself do it. You have something else that you want to do.

No matter what the circumstance, the wrestling is the same. You negotiate with yourself: you want a few more minutes before you start. You think about how you will have to alter the schedule to accommodate starting later. You don’t want to alter the schedule, but you don’t want to start now. You need just a few more minutes. You finally begin late. You are rushed the rest of the day because of not starting when you originally planned. You get angry at yourself or others.

The wrestling that you have experienced is taking place in your soul between your thoughts, your emotions, and your will. The soul does all this negotiation when the three parts are not in agreement. The soul is not integrated.

Each of us will stop the process on negotiation at different points. Some of us will jump in and do the first thought without any planning. Others of us will do so much negotiating that we paralyze ourselves. The rest of us are in between the two extremes. But the wrestling is in the soul.

What happens if there are 5 equally important tasks that must be done the same time? Some people are skilled at multitasking, and this will energize them. Others will be so overwhelmed that they can do nothing, and may get sick from the pressure.

Psychology calls these divergent positions, ego states. A psychologist may use the Empty-chair technique to allow a way for each of the sides to have a voice in the matter.

The Bible calls this a house divided. More about this later.

Contrast this with the times we are integrated. We feel together. We are focused. Some say they are in the ‘zone’ of accomplishment.

The inter-workings of the soul are so common to us that we take them for granted. The soul is very important. Understanding the interactions between the soul’s “intellect”, “emotion”, and “will” can be very helpful. Instead of feeling helpless as though we are being controlled against our will, we have options to address the problem.

Integration Within The Soul

What is this soul that we are describing? Our soul is immortal. It is the non-physical part of us that interacts with the world. The soul has three parts: the “intellect”, the “will”, and the “emotion”. When the Lord Jesus redeems our spirit, He begins the work on renewing our soul into His likeness. This is a life-long process. When we participate with Him by agreeing with the way He wants our “thoughts”, “emotions”, and “will” changed, and labor with Him to carry out these changes, we are working out our earthly salvation of “putting on Christ” here on earth.

Integration Between Soul & Spirit

Sometimes, we mistakenly think that the spirit is the same as the soul- -that they are two names for the same function. Remember Jesus Himself [through the writer of Hebrews 4:12] noted the distinction.

What is the spirit? Our spirit is also immortal. It is the breath of life and it is either dead [unsaved, carnal] or alive [a higher renewed nature].

Our spirit becomes alive when we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord. At that time, the Lord brings His character within our spirit [Colossians 1:27; Galatians 5:22-23]. The Lord then renews our spirit as He infuses us with His unchanging character [Galatians 5:22-23]. God’s awesome character, and His promises for us, are our hope, and our perfect truth. The more we can know and live in God’s love, the more hope we have in our spirit.

God is our Hope and our Peace. He gives us the living hope of His calling in righteousness [Galatians 5:5], and the redemption of our body [Romans 8:23]. We are saved by this hope [Romans 8:24]. “We are justified by faith, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” [Romans 5:1-2].

How is the spirit connected with the soul? The soul can never understand spiritual things from Jesus [I Corinthians 2:14] by itself. It needs our spirit's intervention. Our spirit works with our soul and sets the tone of hope for the soul. This hope changes the negative soul attitude of, “God doesn’t love me”, to “I know God loves me. I will work with God to release His blessings to me.” Without hope, we give up living.

The soul has freewill to refuse God’s hope, and most times we are not aware of our refusal. If we watch our thoughts and feelings about God, and our life experiences, we may see a pattern of a lack of hope.

We know that the spirit’s redemption is finished by Jesus’ death and resurrection. But when we wrongly assume that the soul and the spirit are one and the same, then we think that the soul’s work is also finished with nothing more that can be done on our part.

This ties the Lord’s hand to fully bless us. We quench the Spirit [I Thessalonians 5:19]. We are blinded to the work that Jesus requires us to do to grow up in Christ. He wants our “whole spirit, soul, and body preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord” [I Thessalonians 5: 23]. That requires that we learn to “divide asunder between soul and spirit” [Hebrews 4:12]. We must learn to grow in participating with Him so that He can heal the negative thoughts, behaviors, and feelings that we all have in our human nature.

Integration Between Body, Soul & Spirit

What about the body mentioned in the paragraph above? What part does it play for the soul and spirit? All three affect each other. Our body is the physical part of us that we see in the mirror. It is the house we live in. It acts out the thoughts, feelings, and will of the soul. The body is also affected by the spirit. If the soul is negative with fear, anger, depression, and negative self-talk, the body will have a negative problem. In the same way, a painful problem in the body can cause depression, fear, and anger, in the soul. The pain may be so intense as to overwhelm the hope from the spirit.

So, how do we deal with negative body, or soul, memories, attitudes, behaviors, and emotions? The key is to be aware of the lies [the negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors] that we have taught ourselves about ourselves, God, and others. These lies generate and maintain the problem.

When we have parents who were not emotionally nourished, and could not emotionally nourish us, or who were critical, or distant, we can feel rejection, and can hate and blame ourselves, or hate and blame our parents. The hate and blame become a lie. Only the truth heals [John 8:32]. Painful circumstances divide our soul; they separate our intellect from our emotion. We know that a house divided falls [Luke 11:17].

We must work with the Lord to heal this division. We must realize that it is God’s desire to integrate and heal our soul by empowering us to do so in His Name. When the body, soul, and spirit are working together in hope, we feel integrated. As our soul prospers, this allows us to prosper and be in health [3 John 1:2].

Methods Of Integration

When we listen to our own gut reaction, we generally know what changes we need to make to get ourselves together. There are other times, however, when it isn’t that simple. Try as we might, even after talking to friends and family, we can’t figure out why we are not together. Sometimes we know what we need to do, but can’t bring ourselves to do it. These may be the times to consult a therapist.

I enjoy using two methods to integrate the soul’s intellect, emotion, will, and behavior for a healing. They are the same ones that I use to desensitize the trauma of negative memories.

The first is Theophostic Prayer Ministry. I use Theophostic with other forms of prayer. Theophostic prayer focuses on the emotional area of the soul. It follows the negative emotion to the source and invites the Lord Jesus into that emotion to heal it. This heals the situation causing the emotion, and integrates the soul and body. I have found Theophostic effective even when there didn’t seem to be a situation connected to it. [I am aware of several other national ministries that work with the healing the soul. Please visit my Trauma Interventions page, under the heading of Prayer, for the listing.]

The second method I use to integrate the soul, and desensitize trauma, is with a psychological therapy called EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing]. It is not hypnosis. It uses eye movements to desensitize the trauma situation by connecting it with the negative emotions in the right brain, negative thoughts and attitudes [cognitions] in the left brain, and the areas in the body affected by the stress. This integrates the soul, and the soul with the body. In my practice, I have found EMDR equally effective whether there has been a physical problem, such as high blood pressure, or an emotional problem, like anxiety. For more information, see my Trauma Interventions page, under the heading of EMDR.

Integration of the soul, body, and spirit gives us forward movement in our lives. It brings a sense of being competently together.

Contact Dr. Alff with questions.