At least not in the same way that you do.
Scripture is actually a little bit unclear, which is why so many people such as yourself are confused about it. Our spirit is our life. We are a body. A body with life is a soul. A body without life, is a dead body.
I believe you are the one who is confused and I think you are VERY confused.
When Jesus died and he was said to "give up the spirit" you probably think that means he left his body and went somewhere else in the form of a spirit.
Of course He did. He went to paradise, which is where He told the thief on the cross he would be that day as well (Luke 23:43).
Which would be absurd because that would mean he never died.
It's absurd for you to not believe that Jesus would be in paradise the day He physically/bodily died even though that's what He said in Luke 23:43-46.
If he is a spirit, then he never died.
His body died. Your inability to differentiate between the body, soul and spirit is your downfall. You have no understanding of these things at all.
He just left his body, yet our faith tells us that he died and he defeated death. As Paul says, if Jesus didn't die then our faith is in vain. And we can only say he died if he was a body, and his life left him. That is in fact exactly what happened. His life literally left him (which means he did not continue on in spirit form) and he actually literally really honest to goodness DIED. That means he had no life. That's what death is. No life. When it says he "gave up his spirit" it means he gave up his life because spirit is life.
Nonsense. He told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him that day in paradise. You think they were dead in paradise? God is a God of the living, not the dead. I don't think you know what that means. His spirit went to paradise (third heaven). Accept it instead of believing this unbiblical nonsense that you've bought into.
And if we are all spirits, as you believe, then we're already immortal. So what are you waiting for? Why do you look forward to the resurrection if you're already an immortal spirit?'
Because I don't yet have an immortal body. This isn't as hard as you're making it out to be.
You're probably thinking that the resurrection means that our spirits are "reunited with our bodies". Am I right?
Of course. It will be our changed bodies, not the bodies like we have now. Paul called them spiritual bodies (1 Cor 15:42-44).
Well, how absurd is that?
Not at all.
For what possible reason would we want to "reunite with our bodies" if we are already spirits. Why would we want that? We wouldn't. It's absurd. We are not destined to live eternity in these old corruptible flesh and blood bodies. We are destined to live in heavenly bodies; ie we are destined to live as spirits.
What in the world are you talking about?! When did I say that the dead in Christ will unite with their corruptible flesh and blood bodies? Are you kidding? No, scripture says our bodies will be CHANGED and will then be incorruptible. We will have spiritual bodies. You say we'll live as spirits, but spirits don't have bodies. You are so confused.
Do you suppose this body is a vessel for us to live in? Why would a spirit need a vessel? Why? There is no reason. Spirits are superior to flesh and blood in every way. So on the one hand you think we are already spirits, yet on the other hand you think we long to be "reunited" with our flesh and blood bodies. None of that makes any sense.
I don't care if it makes sense to you or not. It's what scripture teaches. Can a spirit eat food and drink water? Can a spirit play sports or do anything we use our bodies to do? I don't get your point of view at all.
When Paul speaks of "the body" he's speaking of the body of believers, ie. the church.
Not in 2 Cor 5:6-8. You have to be kidding. I've never seen anyone interpret him to be talking about the body of believers in that passage before. Do you know of anyone else who interprets that passage the way you do? He's clearly talking about his human mortal body and not the body of believers there.
This is where you're going off the rails (in my opinion).
You couldn't possibly be more off the rails than what you are about this (in my opinion).
There are no "other parts of us". We are only a soul, a living body. We do not have spirits living inside of us, rather we will be transformed into spirits at the resurrection.
Show me the scripture which teaches that. Good luck.
And please explain to me what you think a "soul" is as compared to a "spirit". You clearly think these are two different things because you think we're made up of three "parts".
Is the following verse in your Bible or not?
1 Thess 5: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.
So I'm pretty sure I know what you think a spirit is, but what do you think a soul is? Do you think all three of these parts share a single consciousness? Or when they separate at death they all have their own consciousness? Do you believe you get split into three separate entities upon death? One dead and two alive? How does that work exactly?
I can't say that I know exactly how that all works. I don't have a vision into that realm like John was given when he wrote the book of Revelation. He saw the souls of the dead. But you seem to think that there isn't such thing as a soul. Go figure. If you want to deny clear scripture, then that's your choice.
What I can say is that scripture clearly tells us that we have a body, a soul and a spirit. Hebrews 4:12 that the word of God can even divide soul and spirit, which implies that the soul and spirit are different parts of us even though they are apparently nearly inseparable. If you don't want to accept that the body, soul and spirit are separate parts of a human being, then it shouldn't even matter to you what the exact description of each is because you don't even accept that they exist in the first place.
In any case this whole notion of having a spirit living inside of us is really non-sensical if you think about it. You would have to then ask yourself, "are you a body, or are you a spirit dwelling inside a body?" And if you are a spirit (or you have a spirit - whatever that means) then what's the point of the resurrection? The answer; there is no point because a spirit is already immortal. Yet at the same time you say you're not immortal yet. Well, which is it? Are you a spirit, or are you not? You see? Nonsense.
Can a spirit manipulate physical objects like we can with bodies? I truly don't get your point of view at all. Your opinions are nonsense because they contradict scripture. Spiritual things aren't always going to make sense to us as weak, fallible human beings. You'll understand better some day. Just because you don't get it now doesn't mean you should reject it. It's taught in scripture.
I think Paul understood it better than you.
I think I understand Paul better than you.