A lot of people make constant references to ones "spirit". What does it do?

Question

So far noone has come up with a decent definition for the spirit, explained where it lies, or how it can be proven to exist. I'm curious if someone can explain precicely what it does. What is its function?

Answer 1

The "spirit" is simply a euphorism for the "virtuous" part of one's beliefs, desires, and actions.

Answer 2

I have one.

Spirit

Definition: The Hebrew word ru´ach and the Greek pneu´ma, which are often translated “spirit,” have a number of meanings. All of them refer to that which is invisible to human sight and which gives evidence of force in motion. The Hebrew and Greek words are used with reference to (1) wind, (2) the active life-force in earthly creatures, (3) the impelling force that issues from a person’s figurative heart and that causes him to say and do things in a certain way, (4) inspired utterances originating with an invisible source, (5) spirit persons, and (6) God’s active force, or holy spirit. Several of these usages are here discussed in relation to topics that may arise in the field ministry.

Answer 3

According to God's word, "spirit" refers to an invisible force(the spark of life) that animates all living things. Bible writers used the word "ru'ach" which is the Hebrew word for spirit. For example, in Psalms104:29 it states, "If you (Jehovah or God) take away their spirit (ru'ach), they expire, and back to their dust they go." The body needs the spirit in much the same way a television needs to be plugged in to an electrical socket. The spirit is the force that brings our body to life. I hope this has helped.

Answer 4

The spirit or inner child is the little guy or girl that makes you vary uncomfortable when someone pushes your buttons, there simply is not the time or space to explain what our spirits function is, but I can tell you that it has probably saved your *** many times in your life.

Answer 5

Its function is to contain and contact God and the things of Him. There is much more to it, but that is its basic definition. Pretty awesome though.

Answer 6

--HERE IS A BREAKDOWN of the word spirit in its many representations:

*** it-2 pp. 1017-1019 Spirit **

The Greek pneu′ma (spirit) comes from pne′o, meaning “breathe or blow,” and the Hebrew ru′ach (spirit) is believed to come from a root having the same meaning. Ru′ach and pneu′ma, then, basically mean “breath” but have extended meanings beyond that basic sense. (Compare Hab 2:19; Re 13:15.) They can also mean wind; the vital force in living creatures; one’s spirit; spirit persons, including God and his angelic creatures; and God’s active force, or holy spirit. (Compare Koehler and Baumgartner’s Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, Leiden, 1958, pp. 877-879; Brown, Driver, and Briggs’ Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1980, pp. 924-926; Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by G. Friedrich, translated by G. Bromiley, 1971, Vol. VI, pp. 332-451.) All these meanings have something in common: They all refer to that which is invisible to human sight and which gives evidence of force in motion. Such invisible force is capable of producing visible effects.
--Another Hebrew word, nesha·mah′ (Ge 2:7), also means “breath,” but it is more limited in range of meaning than ru′ach. The Greek pno·e′ seems to have a similar limited sense (Ac 17:25) and was used by the Septuagint translators to render nesha·mah′.
***Wind.
Consider first the sense that is perhaps easiest to grasp. The context in many cases shows ru′ach to mean “wind,” as the “east wind” (Ex 10:13), “the four winds.” (Zec 2:6) The mention of such things as clouds, storm, the blowing of chaff or things of similar nature appearing in the context often makes evident this sense. (Nu 11:31; 1Ki 18:45; 19:11; Job 21:18) Because the four winds are used to mean the four directions—east, west, north, and south—ru′ach at times may be rendered as ‘direction’ or ‘side.’—1Ch 9:24; Jer 49:36; 52:23; Eze 42:16-20.
--Job 41:15, 16 says of Leviathan’s closely fitting scales that “not even air [weru′ach] can come in between them.” Here again ru′ach represents air in motion, not merely air in a quiescent or motionless state. Thus the thought of an invisible force is present, the basic characteristic of the Hebrew ru′ach.
--Evidently the only case in the Christian Greek Scriptures in which pneu′ma is used in the sense of “wind” is at John 3:8.
--Man cannot exercise control over the wind; he cannot guide, direct, restrain, or possess it. Because of this, “wind [ru′ach]” frequently stands for that which is uncontrollable or unattainable by man—elusive, transitory, in vain, of no genuine benefit. (Compare Job 6:26; 7:7; 8:2; 16:3; Pr 11:29; 27:15, 16; 30:4; Ec 1:14, 17; 2:11; Isa 26:18; 41:29.) For a full discussion of this aspect, see WIND.
--Spirit Persons. God is invisible to human eyes (Ex 33:20; Joh 1:18; 1Ti 1:17), and he is alive and exercises unsurpassed force throughout the universe. (2Co 3:3; Isa 40:25-31) Christ Jesus states: “God is a Spirit [Pneu′ma].” The apostle writes: “Now Jehovah is the Spirit.” (Joh 4:24; 2Co 3:17, 18) The temple built on Christ as foundation cornerstone is “a place for God to inhabit by spirit.”—Eph 2:22.
--This does not mean that God is an impersonal, bodiless force like the wind. The Scriptures unmistakably testify to his personality; he also has location so that Christ could speak of ‘going to his Father,’ this in order that he might “appear before the person of God [literally, “face of God”] for us.”—Joh 16:28; Heb 9:24; compare 1Ki 8:43; Ps 11:4; 113:5, 6; see JEHOVAH (The Person Identified by the Name).
--The expression “my spirit” (ru·chi′) used by God at Genesis 6:3 may mean “I the Spirit,” even as his use of “my soul” (naph·shi′) has the sense of “I the person,” or “my person.” (Isa 1:14; see SOUL [God as Having Soul].) He thereby contrasts his heavenly spiritual position with that of earthly, fleshly man.
--God’s Son. God’s “only-begotten son,” the Word, was a spirit person like his Father, hence “existing in God’s form” (Php 2:5-8), but later “became flesh,” residing among mankind as the man Jesus. (Joh 1:1, 14) Completing his earthly course, he was “put to death in the flesh, but [was] made alive in the spirit.” (1Pe 3:18) His Father resurrected him, granted his Son’s request to be glorified alongside the Father with the glory he had had in his prehuman state (Joh 17:4, 5), and God made him “a life-giving spirit.” (1Co 15:45) The Son thus became again invisible to human sight, dwelling “in unapproachable light, whom not one of men has seen or can see.”—1Ti 6:14-16.
--Other spirit creatures. Angels are designated by the terms ru′ach and pneu′ma in a number of texts. (1Ki 22:21, 22; Eze 3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 43:5; Ac 23:8, 9; 1Pe 3:19, 20) In the Christian Greek Scriptures, the majority of such references are to wicked spirit creatures, demons.—Mt 8:16; 10:1; 12:43-45; Mr 1:23-27; 3:11, 12, 30.
--Psalm 104:4 states that God makes “his angels spirits, his ministers a devouring fire.” Some translations would render this: “Who makest the winds thy messengers, fire and flame thy ministers,” or similarly. (RS, JP, AT, JB) Such translation of the Hebrew text is not inadmissible (compare Ps 148:8); however, the apostle Paul’s quotation of the text (Heb 1:7) coincides with that of the Greek Septuagint and harmonizes with the rendering first given. (In the Greek text of Hebrews 1:7, the definite article [tous] is used before “angels,” not before “spirits [pneu′ma·ta],” making the angels the proper subject of the clause.) Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament (1974) says: “It is to be presumed that [Paul], who had been trained in the knowledge of the Hebrew language, would have had a better opportunity of knowing its [referring to Psalm 104:4] fair construction than we can; and it is morally certain, that he would employ the passage in an argument as it was commonly understood by those to whom he wrote—that is, to those who were familiar with the Hebrew language and literature.”—Compare Heb 1:14.
--God’s angels, though capable of materializing human form and appearing to men, are not by nature material or fleshly, hence are invisible. They are actively alive and able to exert great force, and the terms ru′ach and pneu′ma therefore aptly describe them.
--Ephesians 6:12 speaks of Christians wrestling, “not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” The latter part of the text in Greek literally reads: “Toward the spiritual (things) [Gr., pneu·ma·ti·ka′] of the wickedness in the heavenly [places].” Most modern translations recognize that the reference here is not simply to something abstract, “spiritual wickedness” (KJ), but refers to wickedness carried out by spirit persons. Thus, we have such renderings as: “the spirit-forces of evil on high” (AT), “the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (RS), “the spiritual army of evil in the heavens” (JB), “the superhuman forces of evil in the heavens” (NE).
***God’s Active Force; Holy Spirit. By far the majority of occurrences of ru′ach and pneu′ma relate to God’s spirit, his active force, his holy spirit.
***Not a person.
--Not until the fourth century C.E. did the teaching that the holy spirit was a person and part of the “Godhead” become official church dogma. Early church “fathers” did not so teach; Justin Martyr of the second century C.E. taught that the holy spirit was an ‘influence or mode of operation of the Deity’; Hippolytus likewise ascribed no personality to the holy spirit. The Scriptures themselves unite to show that God’s holy spirit is not a person but is God’s active force by which he accomplishes his purpose and executes his will.
--It may first be noted that the words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (KJ) found in older translations at 1 John 5:7 are actually spurious additions to the original text. A footnote in The Jerusalem Bible, a Catholic translation, says that these words are “not in any of the early Greek MSS [manuscripts], or any of the early translations, or in the best MSS of the Vulg[ate] itself.” A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, by Bruce Metzger (1975, pp. 716-718), traces in detail the history of the spurious passage. It states that the passage is first found in a treatise entitled Liber Apologeticus, of the fourth century, and that it appears in Old Latin and Vulgate manuscripts of the Scriptures, beginning in the sixth century. Modern translations as a whole, both Catholic and Protestant, do not include them in the main body of the text, because of recognizing their spurious nature.—RS, NE, NAB.......................(more available)