People marvel at how smart some animals are, but nothing remotely compares with the human intellect. Humans have free will, self-awareness and superb abilities to learn and reason. King David knew this when he wrote in Psalm 8: 4-6: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

The Bible also explains what makes human brains so different from the brains of advanced mammals. I Corinthians 2:11 and Job 32:8 reveal God put a special spirit into human beings when He created Adam and Eve in His image. However, this spirit in man is not an 'immortal soul' as explained by many mainstream churches. The spirit in man has no consciousness or functionality by itself. Ecclesiastes 9:5 says, The dead know nothing and we are told in Psalms 146:4 that when a man dies ... he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us the spirit in man is preserved by God and will only be fully restored when we are resurrected. God takes each person's spirit to heaven, because it's the permanent part of the person that needs safekeeping until the resurrection. It defines who we are—it's a records our identity, preserving character, personality, memories and understanding. That spirit in man will then be used as the code or "blueprint" for fully restoring all those features when the person is resurrected with a new body!Then one of the great purposes of the human spirit is fulfilled—to receive and integrate with the Holy Spirit. As Romans 8:16 says, "His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children" (New Living Translation).

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