The soul is a combination of spirit + physical body. Our spirit is the eternal part of us.
There were two creations - a spiritual creation, and a physical creation - the generations of heaven (spiritual creation) and the generations of earth (physical creation) these two different creative periods are explained in genesis:
Gen 2: These are the
generations of the heavens and
of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5 . And every plant of the field
before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field
before it grew:
We call God our "Heavenly Father" because He is the Father of our Spirits
All of us here became children of God before we were born on Earth.
Before this life, there was a council in Heaven - followed by a war.
Rev12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
1/3 of the spirits followed Satan and became fallen angels, while the other 2/3's followed God's plan. The war was over free will - free agency. Satan's wanted to take away our free will and thus take away all of our pain and mistakes... God's plan involved the fall and our gaining a knowledge of good and evil with the ability to make mistakes, but also with the ability to make all of our own choices. The entire plan - from the atonement of Jesus - was in place before the world was formed... we were known before we came here...
- Son of man goeth, as it was determined: Luke 22:22 .
- delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge: Acts 2:23 .
- determined the times before appointed: Acts 17:26 .
- he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image: Rom. 8:29 .
- purpose of God according to election: Rom. 9:11 .
- God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew: Rom. 11:2 .
- foreseeing that God would justify the heathen: Gal. 3:8 .
- he hath chosen us in him before the foundation: Eph. 1:4 .
- Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children: Eph. 1:5 .
- God hath from the beginning chosen you: 2 Thes. 2:13 .
- called us … before the world began: 2 Tim. 1:9 .
- Elect according to the foreknowledge of God: 1 Pet. 1:2 .
- Who verily was foreordained before the foundation: 1 Pet. 1:20 .
- Lamb slain from the foundation of the world: Rev. 13:8 .