Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Notice here a division of assets. Soul and Spirit are not the same thing. Joints and marrow are not the same thing. Thoughts and intents are not the same thing. Paul described it in a very confusing way that often leaves a reader bewildered.

Romans 7:18,23 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We are both flesh and Spirit and it is the Word of God that separates one from the other. The Word is the Sword of the Spirit and the Spirit has the power to do the work for God because He is God.

Being God, loving and merciful, He will not destroy us, but a skillful surgeon is He that does not use any anesthesia. The truth hurts but how are you to distinguish soul from Spirit if the flesh does not cry out in pain?

How can the Word work as the Sword of the Spirit if you allow the fleshly mind to determine what Truth there is in the scriptures? “I got this!” has to surrender to “I know nothing.”

1 Corinthians 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

How big is the ego that tries to tell God what the scriptures mean?