John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received, all had a share, and were all supplied with, one Grace after another, and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
Knowing God's will isn't as difficult as we've been taught to believe or as we might think. Some things are manifested in a way we should all know, but we still have problems seeing them. God wills that all should be saved and He so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son, are two concrete proofs that salvation is God's will. Most believers share God's Message of salvation, but complicate other areas of our walk. Colossi ans 1:9-10 (Amplified) says, "For this reason we also, from the first day we heard of it (your love and understanding of God's Grace) have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full (deep, clear) knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom, in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things that you may walk, live and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God, with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance and recognition."
The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write the above scripture, which says, "that we are to know God's will." Paul even prays for the Church to know God's will. Many have said, "You can never know God's will" or "God's will is a mystery to mankind." Paul said though that, "When we know God's will, then we can walk, live, and conduct our lives in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things."
It's paramount in the believer's life that we know God's will for the world, for the Church and for ourselves. God's will for the world is that "all should be saved." His will for the Church is that, "We desire the sincere milk of the Word and that we should grow thereby." God's will for each individual is that "We know Him in a way that we obey His Word and know His Voice and instructions."
Psalm 23:3 tells us that, "Our Shepherd will restore our soul." I'm not sure what believers think this means, but Strong's Concordance says that, "Your soul is not your spirit, but your carnal mind, will and emotions." #5315 tells us that, "Soul," means "A breathing creature, i.e. animal or vitality, senses, bodily, or mentally, any appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, desire, lust, man, mind, mortality, person, pleasure, soul, will."
Your soul is not your spirit. It's the wisdom and desires we walked in before knowing Jesus. It's the carnal mind that led us in life, without God. This soul is made up of our senses, that walked contrary to God and His Spirit in our unsaved lives. When we were born-again, our minds were still carnal and didn't accept the Spiritual things of our new birth.
Paul directs us in Romans 12:2 (Amplified) saying, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Every believer is tasked with believing and studying and seeking God for him/herself. Jesus said, "He would restore our soul." He will bring your soul back to Him in a place of innocence, to where the old man is forgotten and the condemnation that was before is no longer. Many in the Church are still under condemnation from their past, because they haven't allowed Jesus (through His Word) to restore their soul. I know many good Christians who haven't have their soul restored by God's Word. I've prayed for women who had abortions before making Jesus the Lord of their lives and they live with daily regret and condemnation. I know men and women who were sexually molested as children and they're remain in bondage from this abuse.
It wasn't wasn't your spirit that"messed up", it was your soul. Your spirit will receive Jesus and be made righteous and clean in Him, but your soul will retain the shame, guilt, and condemnation of your past, if you fail to renew it and allow Jesus to restore it. Jesus will bring your soul, your senses and carnal thoughts of the past, back to a place of innocence, like it never even happened.
In order to renew our minds or restore our souls, we must allow the Truth of our new birth, by reading God's Word and seeing ourselves like God does. God's Word tells us that, "He remembers our sins and iniquities no more." We must renew our minds, so that we see ourselves like God sees us. God says in Isaiah 26:3 (Amplified), "I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Me." Strong's Concordance #3354-55-56 says, "Mind" means, "Squeezing into shape, to mold into a form, as a potter, to determine form a resolution, fashion, frame, purpose."
God is the Potter and we are the clay. We must allow God's Word to form our mind, our senses, our souls into what the Potter has made us to be. Your soul is the only part of you, that's giving you problems. Your body is subject to your soul (your mind). To keep your soul from being restored to the innocent new creation child of God, satan will keep reminding you about "who you used to be in the world."
Paul didn't merely write the Epistles, but he also had to walk them out, just like we do. Paul had a carnal mind that he needed to overcome in his ministry, when he became born-again. We can read Paul's past, where he threw Christians in jail, consented to the stoning of Stephen, and persecuted the early Church. Paul said this though, in 1Corinthians 4:3-4 (Amplified), "But as for me personally, it matters very little to me that I should be put on trial by you on this point, and that you or any other human tribunal should investigate and question and cross-question me. I do not even put myself on trial and judge myself. I am not conscious of anything against myself, and I feel blameless, but I am not vindicated and acquitted before God on that account. It is the Lord Himself Who examines and judges me."
Paul was a man, who believed and practiced what he preached. Paul hadn't forgotten who he once was, but he received God's Grace and pushed onto a higher walk with God. Instead of walking in depression and guilt, which would have made him useless for God, Paul walked in God's Grace. Paul saw himself as the new man, instead of the old man he was before receiving Jesus. Paul had to do what he instructed us to do and renew his mind to the Truth of the new birth and live under God's Grace.
God isn't your problem, your body isn't your problem and your spirit isn't your problem. It's your soul (mind) that's still thinking and reminding your of its worldly knowledge, that is contrary to the Knowledge of God, that is your problem. Psalm 23:3 says that, "My Shepherd restores my soul." Strong's Concordance #7725 tells us that the word "restore" means, "Bring back home, carry back again, continually convert, draw back, fetch home again, get ones self back again, recall, recover, refresh, restore, retrieve, cause to make to return, reverse, set again, cause to make to turn back again, backward."
Our Great Shepherd will bring us back to a place of innocence, like we never knew sin or the world. It's like the Lord restores us back to Eden, before Adam transgressed in the Garden, in complete unbroken fellowship with Him.
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