Have you heard of your better third?
Often now as I begin to teach individuals about their need for God, I ask them if they have ever heard of their better third. Pretty typically I get a puzzled look, to which I immediately reply, “ You have heard someone refer to their wife or girlfriend as their better half, right?” They quickly answer “Yes.” I then proceed to explain to them that God actually made us in creation to have three parts. Not just a body and a brain, but a body, a brain and a spirit. I then teach them that it is the spirit part of us which is our better third, because it is the part of us God created to live forever.
From Genesis and the Garden of Eden all the way through the Book of Revelation, God our Heavenly Father has had one common goal over and over through hundreds of generations and thousands of people groups. Simply put, His goal is to try to introduce people to their better third.
You see, we were always taught in school that we are a two part being made up of a mind and a body. Think about for a minute, how much time and money that we spend on each of those parts of us. For the mind, it is thirteen years of basic education, then four years of college, maybe graduate school, all to program this God given mind with knowledge. Think of the thousands of dollars we spend on our minds!
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Then there is the entertainment of the brain; sports, media, social activities, friendships, family get-togethers, clubs; and the list can go on and on of things we do to occupy our brain and oh let’s not forget video games!
The body, on the other hand has to be nourished and taken care of health wise. It Taking care of its needs demands huge amounts of our time and resources. Think of the special diets, health care, and special medical care for the bodies as we all need. The truth is that the mind and the body together take up an enormous amount of our time and resources throughout our lifetime. For those who do not know the Lord they take up all of their time and resources!
However, as you start to study the Bible or have someone begin to teach you, you soon learn about what God considers the most important part of you; your better third! You learn that the Bible calls it your spirit man and it is the part of you that is going to live forever when you die. The scriptures say, “Your body came from the earth and when you die it will return to the earth. But your spirit came from God, and when you die, it will return to Him.” (ERV)
Sometimes when I’m asked to speak, I open my talk by asking the group to repeat after me the following words. “Millions, and millions, and millions and millions, and millions and millions, and millions and millions, of years from today, if we are born again Christians, we will still be alive in heaven!” Then I usually ask them to say it a second time just so it sinks in.
When Jesus came on the scene and began his earthly ministry he immediately began to teach, in every one of His messages truths that apply to that spirit man. When He told Nicodemus in John chapter three that “except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God” He was laying down the very foundation for everyone’s spiritual or better third to be reborn and have their sins forgiven so that when they died they could receive the gift of eternal life and go to Heaven.
When He said “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all the things that you have need of will be added unto you” he was speaking about building up that inner or spirit man. From His Sermon on the Mount, to his many parables, Jesus was teaching everywhere He went truths that applied to the spirit man or better third. Many of those teachings exposed how some were wasting their time and money on their minds and bodies.
In Luke 12:16-21 we read “and he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself what shall I do I have no place to store my crops. Then he said to himself this is what I will do! I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store my surplus grain. And I will say to myself, “ You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ Christ concluded by saying This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. (NIV)
Jesus’ whole earthly ministry and in total everyone’s earthly ministry from Adam and Eve to John the Revelator had this same common calling. Namely, to point all mankind to the fact that they had a spirit man that was one day going to live in Heaven or Hell. Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection brought with it the gift of eternal life for that better third of each of us.
To conclude this better third can not only be born again after the very nature of Jesus Himself, but be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit giving us the ability to win over the mind and body of the great wrestling match that’s well described in Romans 7:19-25. So study the Bible to find out that you have a better third! A way better third! A third that will live forever with Jesus in Heaven!
Rev Nolan J Harkness is the President and CEO of Nolan Harkness Evangelistic Ministries Inc. since 1985. He spent most of his adult life working in youth ministry. He also felt the calling of Evangelist/Revivalist and traveled as the door was open holding evangelistic meetings in churches throughout the Northeast. His website is www.verticalsound.org.
