“For whoever desires to save his soul-life will lose it, and whoever loses his soul-life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25
The soul is not the leading part of our being. The soul does not have the first place in our being. Christ in our spirit has the first place. Christ is your source. To lose your soul-life means that you do not take your soul-life as your person. Christ is your person. You do not take your soul as your source. Fellowship with Him. Take Him as your point of reference. Cast everything upon Him. He is the One. We lose our soul-life, with its religious or spiritual endeavors. It is Christ who has first place. He takes the lead. He is the One we handle. We touch Him. To touch Him first is the way to lose the soul-life. By touching Him we find our person. We truly find our soul-life in Him.
Our soul is not our person. Our soul should only be the expression of our spirit — our real person. My mind is a faculty that is wearing a person. My emotions are another part of me that wears my person. Soul, you are wearing a person! When I am enjoying Christ from my spirit, my soul expresses His image, and His image is drawn upon my soul (Luke 1:46-47). We need to know the order of our being and not live the wrong person. We need to keep Christ, our real person, as our person.