c) Very important feature, attribute of this growth, enlargement and strengthening of our spirit is that we don’t have the awareness about this change when it is happening in us. That spiritual growth and enlargement is coming ever so gently, quietly, imperceptibly that we do not even perceive that we are being transferred, moved, relocated from something old to something totally new, which then becomes for us a “normal spiritual state”. In this new spiritual position or state in us, there is nothing abnormal, questionable or suspicious. It has come into our spirit ever so softly and gently though a great change has happened, which we could have never done in our life by any means.
Though we may not understand our spiritual growth or see it with our eyes, nevertheless, the Lord desires to give us His Light also in this affair, as follows. The whole growth of our spirit results in a larger spiritual knowledge, discernment and wisdom, in other words, in the growth of our spiritual life. We do not have to understand even what that spiritual knowledge actually is and how we are gaining it. The Holy Spirit will not sit with us in a school-desk and will not begin to “teach us”, nor dictate to us His instructions, nor give us His intellectual explanations, nor compare them with logical conclusions, nor yet will He do anything what is normally being done when we desire to increase our knowledge of something. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is doing something what we would never imagine as necessary for the increase of our knowledge. He never works along the way of reasoning and intellectual understanding – never! He always works along the way of revelation into our spirit from where the light gets into our soul, to the heart, which is able to understand that revealed light… though our head does not understand it at all. After all, THIS IS that right way of Salvation – by revelations and faith – never by intellect.
In these paragraphs I am everywhere touching our spirit, as if I would ignore our soul or consider it bad, unuseful, as if the spiritual man would be the one who “crucified” his soul. To many Christians, the questions of the spirit and soul may not be clear at all. Hence, I remind everyone: There is nothing bad or wrongful for us to have our soul, after all, without our soul we would not exist! It is very bad and wrong to try and “crucify the old soul” or to get rid of it in some way. We not only need our soul, but it’s precisely our SOUL, that must be SAVED! I AM MY SOUL! Ultimately, our soul and spirit are eternal – they cannot be destroyed nor crucified. The basis of Salvation is thus not in the destruction of the soul, but HOW TO CLEANSE THE SOUL (mind – heart – will) AND GET IT UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – THIS IS THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL!
Let us return to the spirit. The Holy Spirit is guiding us into living circumstances and experiences, and that not only pleasant ones, but chiefly unpleasant ones, problematic, even painful, through which we will start to realize spiritual things and facts (wisdom, righteousness, truth, light, evil, good) in our SPIRIT! Every circumstance, every event, every problem, every conflict has its roots in the spiritual world and NOT in our physical world! In other words, the Holy Spirit will start showing us the spiritual world, which our SOUL does not understand, but OUR SPIRIT DOES UNDERSTAND. It also means that the Holy Spirit does not teach our soul (head, heart, will), but He teaches our spirit, which thereby gains experiences and knowledge in our earthly life. THIS knowledge then makes us a spiritual believer, spiritual person. We are not getting perfected through our head since it has to be perfected itself!
A spiritual person is a man, who possesses certain qualities in his human spirit. There lives inside of him a New Person, different person, which lives by the energy and Life of the Spirit and not by the energy and life of the soul. I repeat, our spirit is outside of our physical and soulish senses and understanding! He has knowledge that our soul does not have and even cannot have from the beginning. He understands the spiritual things, he understands not only the intellectual, but also the spiritual foundation and meaning of the Scripture, because now he is through his new spiritual knowledge joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he, that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT (1Cor. 6:17). The Lord Himself has the same spiritual knowledge and thus we know one another and understand one another. Only then I can truly love Christ because I cannot love somebody, whom I do not know. Thus, I can also love the believers in whom I can touch and have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. With others, I can only have a social contact.
d) The value of our ministry to the Lord, if we have or do any ministry, is always dependent on the measure of our spirituality. If a believer has no spiritual life, no spiritual knowledge, then he has no ministry since to minister to the Lord (His Church) by our soul into which the Spirit of God has no access is unacceptable and to the Lord without any value. There exists an enormous difference between the natural power-strength and the spiritual power-strength, between the power of our natural will and that inner power of our spirit. The first is cold, barren, sterile and it can only bring an infection even disaster into everything that it touches. The spiritual power has in itself softness and tenderness and, what is the most important, life, and that despite its being much stronger, stable, firmer; it also attracts trust and a definite sense that one can rely on it.
Christians in general are rather unspiritual though many of them are conservative when it comes to the principles of faith and doctrines. There however exists an enormous difference between those that are conservative in the principles of faith and doctrines, and those, which are spiritual. Intensive conflicts have been noticed between these two camps of believers. Why? There are rather few that understand the fact that a believer may have healthy and reasonable opinions, he may be meticulous, even an orthodox in his faith and teachings, but simultaneously he may be very unspiritual. Why? Well, his reasonable opinions, doctrines, faith and teachings emanate from his soul and not from his spirit. Such a Christian is then soulish-carnal and not spiritual, he walks on the broad way where the spiritual life, the Life Eternal, is not being received. The spiritual Christians walk on the narrow way, where the Life Eternal is being received. These are only individuals (they are only few) and not multitudes (Mt. 7:13,14). Every one, who walks on this narrow way walks there for himself and not for others. On this way our soul is becoming spiritual – governed by the Spirit of God through our spirit.
In one of this articles, Austin Sparks admitted that for long years he yearned by all his being to meet someone, who already walked on this narrow way and learn from him everything what he wanted to know and understand so that he might lean on that person. However, God purposely caused that such a “crutch” he would never find. The reason? We have in ourselves a great inclination to lean on other people so that they might take us and lead us by our hands as little children are led, and receive nothing from the Lord at first hand! However, our Life in the Spirit must flow and develop from the “first hand”… THIS IS ORIGINALITY! This does not mean that we cannot seek and get advice from those that already walked with the Lord in that realm, but not for the purpose that we might copy everything from them, walk behind them in comfort and avoid any overcoming in our own soul. This is as if someone would walk against a blizzard and we would walk behind his back, out of wind. It can also be said that we are “walking on crutches” because those against whom we are leaning are for us as crutches. Even after many years, we cannot stand on our feet or walk on our own feet, and when someone puts us on our feet, we make few steps and down we fall again. And this is how it may continue for us all our earthly life, if we do not wake up and realize it and make a decision to start standing and walking on our own feet. The Lord is enabling us to stand and walk on our own feet.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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