http://www.contendingforthefaith.org/responses/bible-answer-man/appendix/are-soul-spirit-same.html
Spirit and Soul - Which is Which?
Functions of Soul and Spirit
A careful study of the Bible will show that man has a spirit (Job 32:8), that his spirit has a definite function (Rom. 1:9), and that the function of the spirit is different from the function of the soul (Luke 1:46-47). Since all of God's communications with men occur in the spirit, it is crucial that a believer know his
spirit. If he does not know his own spirit, he does not know how to have fellowship with God in the spirit. Not only that, he mistakenly takes the thoughts or emotions of the soul for the activity of the spirit. Confining himself to the realm of the soul, he seldom reaches the realm of the spirit. The Bible clearly shows first that we have a human spirit, second that our human spirit is not synonymous with our soul, and third that it is not the same as the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:16).
The Human Spirit
According to the revelation of the Bible and the experience of believers, the human spirit can be said to have three main functions.
These three functions are conscience (Rom. 9:1; 8:16), intuition (Mark 2:8), and communion (John 4:24).
The conscience is the part of the spirit which distinguishes right from wrong and is not influenced by knowledge stored in the mind; it is rather a spontaneous direct judgment.
The intuition is the "knowing" part of the spirit. All true knowledge originates not in the mind, but in the spirit. The revelations of God and the movements of the Holy Spirit are known to the believer through his intuition.
A believer must, therefore, take care to heed these two aspects of his spirit: the speaking of his conscience and the teaching of his intuition.
Communion is the third function of the spirit, and is related to the worship of God. The soul is not competent to worship God. According to John 4:24, "God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
The Human Soul
Not only does man possess a spirit which enables him to function in the spiritual realm; he also possesses a soul which is the organ of his self-consciousness. The soul is the seat of the human personality.
The ingredients which make us human beings belong to the soul. The intellect, thought, ideals, love, emotion, understanding, decision, choice, and other like qualities are all associated with the soul.
The three main functions of the soul are the will (Job 7:15), the mind (Lam. 3:20, RSV), and the emotion (2 Sam. 5:8; Deut. 6:5).
The will is the instrument for making decisions and choices.
The second function of the soul is the mind, the instrument for thinking. It is in this part of the soul that man reasons and has knowledge (Prov. 2:10).
The third function of the soul is the emotion. This is the instrument of likes and dislikes. Through the emotions we are able to express love or hatred, joyfulness, anger, sadness, or happiness. A shortage in this area will render us insensitive. By a careful study of the Bible we cannot help but be impressed that these three primary functions of the personality belong to the soul.
Vital to Christian Experience
This matter of distinguishing the spirit from the soul is not just something of academic or doctrinal interests. It is vital to our Christian experience. If we do not know our human spirit, how shall God communicate with us (Job 32:8); how shall we worship Him (John 4:24); how shall we receive revelation from God (Eph. 1:17); and how shall we pray properly (Eph. 6:18, praying...in spirit)? These vital experiences are a matter of knowing our spirit. Even serving the Lord must be done in and with our spirit (Rom. 1:9). Many today are satisfied simply to find an open door to serve the Lord, but Paul was regulated rather by the rest in his spirit (2 Cor. 2:12-13).
If you are a Christian, your spirit has been made alive by the Spirit (John 3:6), and today Jesus Christ is with your spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). There is not one verse in the whole Bible which says that your soul was born again or that Christ today is in your soul. Neither is there a single verse which says that we should worship God with our soul (although many Christians try it). But there is a verse which says that if we are going to worship God, we must worship Him in spirit (John 4:24).
May all who read these words be exercised to discern between their soul and their spirit and to walk before God in spirit.
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http://www.kjvbible.org/body.html
Each man and woman born into this world is a being made of three (3) distinct components:
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23 KJV)
1: The BODY. This is your PHYSICAL component of being. It is flesh made from a collection of unremarkable mineral elements (but is mostly water) and is in harmony with the nature and spirit of this world. It grows, matures, begins to deteriorate, eventually dies, and then decomposes back into its constituent elements and remains a part of the dust of the world. The body is a part of you but is NOT ALL of what defines who YOU are.
"And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,"
(Proverbs 5:11 KJV)
2: The SOUL. This is who YOU are; it is a part of your SPIRITUAL component. This is your individuality, your "I AM" so to speak (made in God’s image), your "heart." Although your individual soul did not exist before your mother and father procreated you, it will exist forever. It cannot be killed by man:
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
(Matt. 10:28 KJV)
When your body dies your soul (YOU) will leave the body of flesh:
"And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin."
(Genesis 35:18 KJV)
3: The SPIRIT. This is the source of power and control for both your body and soul; it is either evil or good, darkness or light, unholy or Holy, unclean or clean, of Satan or of God:
"But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of."
(Luke 9:55 KJV)
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http://www.tripartiteman.org/definition/spirit.html
The Definition of the Three Parts of Man:
The Human Spirit
Our human spirit is also composed of three parts: the conscience, fellowship, and intuition. The conscience is that part which enables us to perceive right from wrong and which, accordingly, either condemns or justifies us. Through the fellowship, we are able to contact God and commune with Him. Finally, through the intuition God imparts to us a direct, particular sense or knowledge which is independent of reason, circumstance, situation, or precedent.
These three faculties of the spirit: conscience, fellowship, and intuition are clearly described in Scripture.
First and most crucial is the spirit
The primary, leading part of the spirit is the conscience. In Romans 9:1 Paul testified, “My conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit.” When this passage is compared to Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit,” it becomes apparent that the conscience is located within the human spirit. The Spirit of God witnesses with our human spirit, yet at the same time our conscience witnesses with the Holy Spirit. By association, then, the conscience must be part of the human spirit.
The Scriptures likewise reveal that the fellowship pertains to the spirit. Christ Himself told us that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (John 4:24). Worshipping God is altogether a matter of contacting God in fellowship. Furthermore, Ephesians 6:18 mentions “praying at every time in spirit,” another form of fellowship with God. Based on these verses we can conclude that fellowship is a component of the human spirit.
Worshipping God is altogether a matter of contacting God in fellowship
Finally, we must see in the Scriptures that the intuition is also a part of the spirit. First Corinthians 2:11 says, “For who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him?” This verse shows us that there are things which only the spirit of man knows, and which the soul is unable to know. This function of our intuition has the capacity to know and discern apart from human reason or circumstantial experience. For example, in the gospel of Mark the scribes were silently reasoning within their hearts about the Lord’s statement, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” In response to their reasoning, “immediately Jesus, knowing fully in His spirit that they were reasoning this way within themselves, said to them, Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts” (2:8). This verse further illustrates that the spirit can have an inner sense and knowledge independent of the reason or outward circumstances upon which the soul’s discernment relies so heavily. This spiritual sense, or intuition, is an essential faculty of the human spirit (Witness Lee, Economy 56-59).
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The Definition of the Three Parts of Man:
The Soul
The soul, the “person” of man, is likewise composed of three parts: the mind, the will and the emotion. God’s Word proves this clearly and definitively.
First, the Scriptures consistently identify the mind as part of the soul. For example, the Psalmist exults, “I will praise You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, and my soul knows it well” (Ps.139:14, italics added).
Knowledge, no doubt, pertains to the mind. In addition, Lamentations 3:20 says, “My soul remembers them well and is bowed down within me.” To remember is another function of the mind. These verses clearly indicate that there is a part of the soul that knows and remembers; this part is the mind.
The will is also part of the soul. Job had much to say about the will, for example, “So that my soul would choose strangulation and death rather than my bones” (Job 7:15). He also said, “My soul refuses to touch them…” (6:7). Both choosing and refusing are functions of the will, a part of the soul.
Tell me, you whom my soul loves
Finally, we can see from the Word that the emotion is part of the soul. In Song of Songs 1:7, the Shulamite speaks to her beloved, “Tell me, you whom my soul loves.” Second Samuel 5:8 records the opposite feeling: “And David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him go up to the watercourse and strike the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul….” And in Psalm 86:4, David experienced a change in feeling: “Cause the soul of Your servant to rejoice…” Since love, hate and rejoicing are clearly expressions of the emotions, it is obvious that the emotion is the third faculty of the soul (Witness Lee, Economy 55-56).
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The Definition of the Three Parts of Man:
The Body
The body of man with its five senses is that part which contacts the physical world. This physical body as man’s outward frame is God’s provision for his existence; without it man would be unable to exist in the material realm. Originally, man was created with a pure, undefiled body. But due to man’s fall his body was changed in nature, transmuted, thus becoming the fallen flesh full of lust. Hence, man’s body is a corrupted body as Paul observed in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells” (Witness Lee, Basic 41).
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The Definition of the Three Parts of Man:
The Heart–A Composition of the Soul and the Conscience (The Leading Part of the Spirit)
Man’s heart, as revealed throughout Scripture, is a composition of all the parts of the soul as well as of the primary part of the spirit, namely the conscience.
It may strike the reader as odd to hear that the heart is not a separate and distinct component of man, but rather a composition of several other parts.
Nevertheless, the Bible clearly indicates, as outlined below, that all three components of the soul–the mind, will, and emotion–also comprise the heart, together with the leading part of the spirit–the conscience.
In order to see that the mind is a part of the heart, we must read Genesis 6:5: “And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Furthermore, as Matthew 9:4 reports, “Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts?” Both “thoughts” and “thinking” relate to the mind, evidence that the mind, as a part of the soul, is simultaneously a part of the heart.
To identify the will as pertaining to the heart, we must consult Acts 11:23: “Who, when he arrived and saw the grace of God, rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain with the Lord with purpose of heart.”
In addition, the second half of Hebrews 4:12 speaks of the Word’s ability to discern, “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Both “purpose” and “intentions” are functions of the will, indicating that the will, likewise, is part of the heart.
Several other portions of the Word prove that the emotion is part of the heart. In John 16:6, the Lord tells His disciples, “But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” Later in that same chapter, the Lord continues, “Therefore you also now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.” Since sorrow and rejoicing, human emotions, are so evidently linked here to the heart, we can say that man’s emotional faculty is also part of the heart. The scriptural references cited in the above three paragraphs clearly demonstrate that the soul with its three parts (mind, will, and emotion) is a key component of the heart.
Finally, the Word makes it clear that the leading part of the spirit (the conscience) is also integrally related to the heart. Hebrews 10:22 strongly links these two: “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Additionally, 1 John 3:20 warns, “Because if our heart blames us, it is because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” Blame and condemnation are the primary functions of the conscience, further proof that our conscience is part of our heart. In summary, it is the conscience, along with the three parts of the soul, that compose man’s heart (Witness Lee, Economy 59-61).
