When God breathed His spirit into the body from dust the soul life was created, but so was the in-breathing directly creating man's spirit distinct (about 6000 years ago) as is the body which formed over 13.7 billion years.

The term is not trichotomist, but those who reject our being spirit, soul and body (Heb. 4.12, 1 Thess. 5.23) like to use that word because there is something unflowing about it, even derogatory. They are not doing God's will. Tripartite is accurate! The correct word to use is we are "tripartite" as opposed to "bipartite". The latter says the soul is the spirit. Satan is the author of confusion. Tripartite says the spirit is not the soul, nor is the soul the body.

Your spirit is your innerman or innerwoman, and it comprises the functions of intuition, communion and conscience. Therein are your inner registrations and still small movements of the spirit where your conscience works through, even where the Holy Spirit can indwell (Spirit never indwells in soul or body initially). Your spirit has God-consciousness made in His image and can never be taken away.

When you die, your spirit is saved, but at resurrection (1 Thess. 4.15-17) it is rebooted into a newly clothed resurrected spiritual physical body and which will reactivate the soul or soul life.

The soul is your mind, will and emotions and the life of the soul is the blood. If you retrace all cause and effects, you will realize the soul is in the blood, for without the blood, the mind cannot work. Your soul with its functions has self-consciousness. It was made in God's image around 6000 years ago.

Your soul and body together comprise your outerman. These two are rougher than the sensitivities of the spirit. God works from within; Satan works from without. That is, Satan tries to gain a stronghold in the soul of your mind to possess you through temptations of the body. It is the self Satan is after, even the good self, which if he can control, he is happy to have this, for eventually he can cause you to sin if you cling to the good self. The good self is still the flesh. The flesh is sin of the body and self of the soul. The good self is independent from and does not rely on God's leading of the Spirit. Before regeneration, your spirit was indwelt by the evil spirit. But once quickened through new birth, the Holy Spirit ousts the evil spirit from your spirit. Though we Christians can't lose eternal life, we can give ground to footholds in our mind, so this is why spiritual warfare is essential, putting on the full armor of God. In the case where a Christian does become possessed it is as though the spirit is indwelt by the evil spirit again, however realize this fact: even though a Christian can slip up at times, still in the deepest part of their spirit remains the Holy Spirit. In other words, the evil spirit with all his trickeries can try as he may, but he can never run deeper than the Holy Spirit in a Christian who has God's life. Christians have gone through the door of being perfect with eternal life. A non-Christian refuses to go through that door of being perfected with God's life.

The body has its senses of world-consciousness which you make contact with the world with. The spirit communicates to the soul and in turn, the soul communicates its will to the body.

God considers the spirit the most important because Spirit speaketh with spirit; then the soul, and then the body. But all together are the temple. Think of the body as the light bulb, the wire as the soul and the electricity as the spirit. Or try this analogy: when you put dye into water they merge into ink. The dye is the spirit, the water is the body and ink is the soul. This comparison though fails because the soul actually remains completely distinct from the body or the spirit. Your spirit is like the mistress, your soul the steward and the body the servant. The spirit communicates its intuition to the soul. The steward does what the mistress wants, hopefully, if it is walking by the spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit for those who are regenerated. What the mistress wants, the steward performs by getting the servant to do it. Hence we find in Heb. 4.12 and 1 Thess. 5.23, the spirit comes before the soul, the soul comes before the body. One last type. The ark in the Holy of Holies communicates God's will as He comes down between the Cherubim on the seat of the ark. The Holy of Holies is compared to the spirit of man. The Holy Place (not the Holy of Holies) is the room in which has the burning of incense for prayers and several other items representing the soul's working. This is where the decisions are made in the soul. Daily the priests perform their duties in the Holy Place, but in the Holy of Holies, the high priest can only enter once per year, indicating a very precious place. The outer court is like the body. The sacrifices take place, the sprinkling of the blood on the altar and the washing in the bin to wash away sins. Jesus died on the cross; it was his physical body that died for you to wash away your sins, not his spirit or soul. There is no spiritual death, for obviously Jesus was resurrected, spirit, soul and given a resurrected body without blood, though you could touch it.

In the ark is the law, which convicts silently through man's conscience. And conscience works through intuition therein. The High Priest, a type of Christ, was the mediator and through Him communion with God was reached. Today Jesus is Whom we communion with, for Christ lives in us by the Holy Spirit in our spirit. The veil is rent, which refers to Jesus dying on the cross for your sins, to atone for sins, and show forth resurrection that you may have resurrection life also.

This is a fact! In the history of the human race, no human being, nor in the Church, has ever documented these intricacies in the 66 books of God's Word better than had Watchman Nee in The Spiritual Man (CFP white copy only!), over 700 pages. Nee goes through hundreds of verses to prove the case, but be careful this is not a book of principles, but it is a book of effecting spiritual change in your life.