HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Spirit, Soul and Body

This article is not to be used without permission from the Founder of T.A.G. Ministries, International
© 2007 TAG Ministries, International / Houston, Texas

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HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS: SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY

In our previous lesson, we looked at a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder (also known as SAD). SAD is marked by symptoms of depression profound enough to seriously affect work and relationships. This disorder may have its onset in adolescence or early adulthood and, like other forms of depression, occurs more frequently in women than in men. We began looking at the scriptures to understand WHERE the ROOT of your SADness and depression can be found. We learned that God created your spirit, soul and body to be as one. However, SIN has destroyed this unity. When mankind sinned in Adam, that oneness was broken and now our soul fights against the Spirit of God as Paul talked about in Romans chapters 6-7. As believers, our souls are in a constant warfare against our spirit. It is because of this “warfare in our souls that James tells us that our souls must be "saved" or renewed day by day (James 1:21).

Today we will look at our spirit, soul and body to determine where depression takes residence.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Now may the God of peace

Himself sanctify you completely,

and may your whole spirit, soul and body

be preserved blameless

at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is interested in all three portions of our being – spirit, soul and body. The Bible says concerning our Savior, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." (Luke 2:52). This reveals the importance of our mental and emotional development, our physical prowess, our spiritual life with God of worship and communion, and our social interactions with others. God is interested in all of these, and the Bible gives us keys for our development in these areas.

The verse quoted above from 1 Thessalonians supports the view that God is interested in our sanctification – spirit, soul and body.

You are a spirit,

You have a soul,

And you live in a body.

Depression (S.A.D.ness) resides in your soul. Because of this duality within your body (spirit and soul), you must know how to address your sadness both spiritually and naturally. God’s word addresses the spiritual issue because your spiritual issues always affect your soul. Why because that is who you are…a spirit. Your body will return to dust but your spirit will continue to possess a soul for eternity. So, what is your “soul”?

Your soul, which consists of: your mind, your will and your emotions is what forms your personality. Your mind is the place of intellect, logic and reasoning. It gathers and stores information. Like the pantry in a person’s kitchen, some items are stored according to that person’s particular logic. Others have items just randomly placed seemingly no rhyme nor reason to it. Your emotions are based on your thoughts. What you think about a person or thing determines how you feel about a person or thing. There are times when your mind and emotions do not agree. You can have verbal confirmation from a person that they love you, but you may “feel” as if they don’t. So you constantly try to get them to prove their love or you seek their approval when no disapproval has been expressed. Your will is what you set yourself (often described as ‘setting your heart’) to DO something…to act or react.

WHICH IS IN CONTROL?

Your mind (or thoughts) can control your actions.

Your emotions (how you feel) can control your actions.

Or both your mind and emotions can control your actions.

Here’s an example:

You THINK and FEEL someone doesn’t like you based on one or more of the following pieces of information that is stored in your mind from experience (interaction with that person) or observation (watching how they act):

Your Mind – what you think

*a negative “vibe” – you hear the tone in their voice and watch their body language

*an exchange of hurtful words

*they seem to avoid you

*they look at you “funny” or have unpleasant facial expressions when they look at you

*someone told you that this person doesn’t like you

*the person told you from their own lips that they don’t like you

*you don’t like them so you think they don’t like you

*they’ve abused you (verbally, physically, sexually)

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying abuse is all in the mind. It is actual and factual. I’m saying the incident is STORED there…in your memories. Stay with me, ok.

Your Emotions – how you feel

With this information now gathered and stored in your mind, you now FEEL rejected by that person.

Your Will – what you will do about it

Now you set your heart to DO…act or react to what you are thinking, feeling or both. Either your mind (or thoughts) will control your actions or your emotions will control your actions. And sometimes both may determine how you act or react to a person or situation.

Rejected, now you decide:

• To prove yourself to the person – having approval addiction is a dangerous thing. Some will do anything to gain the approval of another. You may spend lots of money on them; have sex with them at their command; agree to engage in illegal acts; or simply try to pamper them with things you know they like, not just because you love them…but because you want buy their approval.

• To defend yourself to the person – you are always on the defense around them. Every statement they make is followed by a statement of defense on your part. You over explain yourself constantly because you feel “misunderstood”. Or you may sulk and build a wall of resentment because you think they just don’t and won’t understand you.

• To villanize others - by constantly revisiting memories of the people in your past who have rejected you, the person in your present situation is now lumped in with them and you see them as a perpetrator or villain (sometimes assuming and declaring them guilty without and true conclusive evidence that they ARE like the people from your past). You think to yourself, “That comment he made is the same comment my father made…just before he walked out and left us”. Now the person in your present is…”just like your father”. So you build an emotional wall as if bracing yourself for this person to hurt you.

• To become your avenger – this can be you avenging yourself of the actual or perceived offense of rejection. Some Christians take the word of God and yield it inappropriately. You may think to yourself, “I know they don’t like me so I’m going to kill them with kindness. After all the scriptures say it will reap hot coals on them…that’ll show ‘em!” Or you become like a double agent and smile in their face in order to seem in agreement with them but your fingers are crossed behind your back and while alone you scheme and think of ways to get back at them.

• To victimize yourself or remain a victim - depending on the situation, you will gain a victim mentality either because you actually cannot get out of the situation or you think you can’t get out of it. Also, you may say such things as “I act this way because this person did this to me” instead of deciding to take both control and responsibility for your thoughts and actions. You may even become a victim of yourself by deciding to give in to thoughts that make you angry, jealous, guilty, resentful instead of loving, forgiving (yourself and others).

All of these emotions and actions can lead you to and leave you in a very dark place where you continually feel unworthy, unloved, rejected and disrespected….this dark place is called…depression.

If you have a history of rejection or abandonment in your life: Parental rejection, Peer rejection or Romantic rejection, someone dies and you feel abandoned, each time the holiday season approaches, in your mind, you think of all of these experiences; intellectually tabulating, making a list of the persons who rejected you with details of the rejections. You set your will according to what you are thinking –

“I don’t want to be around them because of what they did to me”,

“I don’t have anyone to celebrate the holiday with because of….”,

“My family never deals with real issues, we laugh and play and no one wants to talk about what is going on”

“Since dad died, the holidays just aren’t the same”

“Why did they leave me?”

Your personality may become passive – and you set your will (your action/re-action) to “not cause trouble”, “to avoid conflict”, “not be confrontational but ignore the problem”

Your personality becomes aggressive – and you set your will to “confront everyone about everything without tact or concern for others”, “self protect and attack before a perceived attack”

In both cases you are self-protecting, shielding yourself from dealing with the issue in a godly manner. How do you deal with depression in a godly manner?

Remember, you are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. Depression resides in the soul of man. With depression residing in the soul and the soul and spirit at war….there seems to be no way out of depression. It’s like fighting a losing battle. But be encouraged, the battle is not lost. There is deliverance from depression and Hope for the Holidays!

In our next lesson, we will conclude the series by taking a look at FALSE HOPE and TRUE HOPE and show you how to be delivered from depression.

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This lesson is presented by:

T.A.G. MINISTRIES, INTERNATIONAL
Evangelist Tracy Curtis, Founder

HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Getting to the Root of Depression

This article is not to be used without permission from
the Founder of T.A.G. Ministries, International
© 2007 TAG Ministries, International / Houston, Texas

__________________________________________________________

In our previous lesson, we looked at a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder (also known as SAD). SAD is marked by symptoms of depression profound enough to seriously affect work and relationships. This disorder may have its onset in adolescence or early adulthood and, like other forms of depression, occurs more frequently in women than in men. Whether you are a man, woman, teen or child, all of us can become SAD during the holidays. Seasonal Affective Disorder can sometimes progress to a major depressive syndrome so, please refer to our previous lesson for the symptoms of SAD. Talk therapy (or counseling) may be necessary to diagnose and treat this disorder. I recommend you seek advice from a Faith-Based (Christian) Counselor who will address this disorder from both a physical and biblical perspective.

Each year, depression affects about 6 million American men and 12 million American women. But these numbers may not tell the whole story. Because men may be reluctant to discuss male depression with a health care professional or a counselor, many men with depression may go undiagnosed, and consequently untreated. Children and teens also suffer in silence to depression. Peer and parental pressures can create expectations on our youth that can be perceived as being unrealistic and unfair. Oftentimes this is a true perception produces a fear of disappointing parents and not being accepted by peers. This can send our youth spiraling down depression’s dark path; and for some, this path may lead to suicide.

BUT, be encouraged,

There is HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS:

Isaiah 61:1-3

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

In order to get to the root of depression, it is important to understand who you are both physically and spiritually.Knowing that depression can come upon any of us (men, women, teens and children), let’s go back to Genesis to review the creation of mankind.

Genesis 1:25-27

25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Our “kind” is not beasts nor insects nor birds. Our “kind” is patterned after God Himself. The word “kind” here is the Hebrew word “miyn” (pronounced “mēn”). It is a masculine noun usually defined as “species”. Unlike animals we (mankind) having been made in God’s image are of His species. What species is that and what image…what do we look like?

In this lesson series, I want to take time to go through the scriptures and share some things with you because I want you to understand WHERE the ROOT of your SADness and depression can be found. So have patience as we rightly divide the word of truth.

SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY

Three equals One (3 = 1)

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You are a spirit,

You have a soul,

And you live in a body

God is a spirit; and in His spiritual image was mankind’s “species” created. God is a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit, but all three exist as one in unity (3=1). Since we were created in God's image, our spirit, soul and body is a similar trinity (3=1).

God created your spirit, soul and body to be as one. However, SIN has killed us and this unity. When mankind sinned in Adam, that oneness was broken and now our soul (flesh) fights against the Spirit of God as Paul talked about in Romans chapters 6-7. As believers, our soul (flesh) is in a constant warfare against our spirit. In addition, there are outside forces or satanic influences (firey darts) that are contrary to the Spirit of God. (2 Cor 10:3-5) Hence the warfare is in our souls, which is why James tells us that our souls must be "saved" or renewed day by day (James 1:21).

But there is good news, if any man be in Christ he is a new creation – a newly created spirit. (2 Cor 5:17) Now, only our recreated spirit in Christ can renew our souls. Our spirits are born again and therefore "perfect" (Heb 12:22-23) at the point of our confession of faith. BUT, our souls must be renewed daily by God’s word. After salvation, your renewed spirit is a done deal. Salvation is a finished work.

What do you mean our souls must be renewed daily?

What is our soul if it is not our spirit?

Why do I get depressed?

I’m saved, shouldn’t that all be taken care of?

Isn’t a life as a Christian supposed to be joyful?

And why do I keep having these bad thoughts?

Those are very good questions. In our next lessons we will look at what influences our thoughts. Where does depression come from? And how do we deal with those depressing thoughts and feelings.

Information Sources: The Holy Bible, “The Heart of Man & The Mental Disorders”-Thompson, “Caring for God’s People God’s Way”-Clinton/Hart/Ohlschlager, Mayo Clinic, Healthline.com, Christinyou.net, the5foldman.com, Christian-faith.com, Dr. Richard Boyum, “Lord, I Want to be Whole”-Omartian, “Competent Christian Counseling”-Clinton&Ohlschlager, “Christian Counseling”-Collins

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This lesson is presented by:

T.A.G. MINISTRIES, INTERNATIONAL
Evangelist Tracy Curtis, Founder

HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Why Am I So Sad?

This article is not to be used without permission from
the Founder of T.A.G. Ministries, International
© 2007 TAG Ministries, International / Houston, Texas

__________________________________________________________

In America , the most joyous holidays are celebrated at the end of each year: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Families and friends come together for fanciful feasts, to frolic outdoors and to express their faith in God. Homes are beautifully decorated denoting both the change in weather as well as the change in holidays. There are beautiful fall colors for Thanksgiving; Christmas lights illuminate living rooms and lawns; and party hats, streamers and confetti are at the ready to ring in the New Year. Kitchens come alive with the aroma of savory sensations that makes your mouth water as soon as you walk through the front door. Dining tables are adorned with desserts so delightfully delectable you are tempted to sneak a sample of each sweet treat. (Go ahead; Mom won’t see you taste the frosting.) As each holiday approaches not only do you look forward to the food that will fill your belly, but you anticipate the fun-filled moments you will have as you are surrounded by family and friends. Laughter will fill the air as children are outside playing with each other and adults are inside playing various games of friendly competition; some families go hunting together; some will be singing others will be dancing; all of this will create memories for the next year.



But what about those who experience “un-happy holidays”? For them, Thanksgiving through New Years is the worst time of their lives. During this season some experience a SADness that seems to engulf them and despite how much they want to be happy…there seems to be no hope for the holidays.

Do you feel depressed around the holidays?
It could be a sign of seasonal
affective disorder
also known as S.A.D.
SADness is a form of depression.

Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods. But, true clinical depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for an extended period of time.


Depressed children may not have the classic symptoms of adult depression. Watch especially for changes in school performance, sleep, and behavior. If you wonder whether your child might be depressed, it's worth bringing to a counselor or doctor’s attention.

What is SAD?
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that occurs in relation to the seasons, most commonly beginning in winter.


Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is marked by symptoms of depression profound enough to seriously affect work and relationships. The disorder may have its onset in adolescence or early adulthood and, like other forms of depression, occurs more frequently in women than in men. But note, most people with the "winter blahs" or "cabin fever" do not have SAD.

Physicians and counselors say that the cause of SAD is not known, but is thought to be related to numerous factors including body temperature, hormone regulation, and ambient light. A rare form occurs in the summer.

Symptoms of SAD

• Depression with the onset of fall or winter
• Lack of energy
• Decreased interest in work or significant activities
• Increased appetite with weight gain
• Carbohydrate cravings
• Increased sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness
• Social withdrawal
• Afternoon slumps with decreased energy and concentration
• Slow, sluggish, lethargic movement

Medical Treatment
As with other types of depression, antidepressant medications and talk therapy can be effective. With the change of seasons, symptoms oftentimes resolve themselves without any outside assistance.


Expectations (prognosis)
The outcome is good with continuous treatment, although some people have the disorder throughout their lives.


Complications
Seasonal affective disorder can sometimes progress to a major depressive syndrome.


How does the Bible address depression?
Talk Therapy (counseling) alone or medicine alone is NOT the answer to depression. The suggestions above are a “natural” solution to treat mental and/or physical issues. These are the solutions prescribed by the world’s system. But what do the scriptures say about such things? How does the Bible address depression?


In our next lesson, we will take a look at depression or SADness from a biblical perspective. For it is in the Word of God that we will find Hope for the Holidays.

Information Sources: The Holy Bible, “The Heart of Man & The Mental Disorders”-Thompson, “Caring for God’s People God’s Way”-Clinton/Hart/Ohlschlager, Mayo Clinic, Healthline.com, Christinyou.net, the5foldman.com, Christian-faith.com, Dr. Richard Boyum, “Lord, I Want to be Whole”-Omartian, “Competent Christian Counseling”-Clinton&Ohlschlager, “Christian Counseling”-Collins

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This lesson is presented by:

T.A.G. MINISTRIES, INTERNATIONAL
Evangelist Tracy Curtis , Founder