Suppose our renewed mind understands what we sense by our intuition. Then the issue is our willingness to obey what we understand. We may understand, but we may also say no to the Lord. To obey with the will is another problem. Actually, if we do not have an obedient will, it will be difficult for us to understand what is in our intuition. The Lord is very wise; He never does anything wastefully. If He knows that we have no willingness to obey, there is no need for us to receive understanding concerning His will. He will simply leave us in darkness. Why should He allow us to understand if we will not obey? Our understanding must be backed by an obedient will, a will that is ready to obey the Lord (John 7:17). When we are ready to obey, we will be able to understand.
For example, some have come to me with questions but without a heart to listen and understand. I realized that it would be a waste of time to talk with them. Sometimes I would ask, “Do you really mean business? If I answer your question, will you obey?” Their answer would usually be, “Well, maybe, but I may not like to do it. I simply want to study and find out what is what.” Our will must be wholly submissive, and not only submissive but also in harmony with the will of God (Luke 22:42; James 4:7; Phil. 2:13).
God created us with a free will. He never forces us to do anything, but always gives us the option to choose. He is great and wise, but He will never force us. If He were to use force, it would mean that He is actually small. Satan not only forces people but even seduces them. God would never do that. God says, in effect, “If you like it, do it; if you don’t, don’t. If you love Me, simply do it. If you don’t love Me, forget it. Go your own way.” Thus, there is the need to exercise our will; otherwise, it is difficult for God to do anything. In order to exercise our will, we must make our will submissive and ready to obey all the time. We should not only submit ourselves to the will of God but also bring our will into harmony with His.
When our will is dealt with to such an extent, it will be transformed. It will be saturated with Christ as our life by the spreading of the Holy Spirit. Others will sense the savor and the very image of Christ in our will. Every decision we make will be an expression of Christ. This is not a supposition, nor is it merely a doctrine. Sometimes when we meet some dear ones in the Lord, we sense the savor of Christ in whatever they say, whatever they choose, and whatever they decide. This simply proves that they have been saturated with Christ by being transformed in their will and in their mind.
The last dealing related to the soul is with our troublesome emotion. As we all know, nearly all our troubles are related to our emotion. Our emotion must be under the control of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason that Matthew 10:37-39 exhorts us to love the Lord more than everything else. What the Lord does not allow, we should not love. The regulating of our love under the control of the Lord is the negative side. But we must also know the positive side, that is, the side of always being ready to exercise our emotion according to the Lord’s pleasure. Many, many times our emotions have the Lord’s permission but not His pleasure. He allows us to love something, but He is not pleased.
A sister once found herself in such a situation. She knew that the Lord allowed her to do certain things according to the desire of her emotion, but she realized that the Lord was not happy. She went back to the Lord and said, “Lord, even though You have permitted this, I will not do it. I realize that You are not happy.” This is very good. She experienced sweet fellowship with the Lord and was full of peace and joy. She learned the lesson of bringing her emotion entirely under the control of the Lord and His pleasure. Sometimes we can gain the Lord’s permission to love something, but not His joy. The more we love that thing, the more we lack the joy. Finally, our loving according to our own pleasure becomes a suffering, not an enjoyment. This proves that we are wrong in our emotion. We all must learn to deal with our emotion according to the pleasure and joy of the Lord. If we do not sense the joy of the Lord in what we are seeking, we must not love it.
Many have heard messages from Matthew 10:37-39 exhorting them not to love their parents, their brothers and sisters, and themselves more than the Lord, but they are unable to understand what this means. It simply means that they need to love everything under the control of the Lord and with His pleasure. The Lord is not small, nor is He cruel; but we must learn that whatever we hate or love, whatever we like or dislike, must be under the permission of the Lord and with His joy. We must exercise our emotion according to the Lord’s emotion. When our emotion is not under His emotion, we are wrong and can never have His joy. The more we go our own way, the more we will lose our joy; we will not have the sweet, tender, and deep fellowship with the Lord. Although no one can condemn us for being wrong, and we can even claim before others that we have received the Lord’s permission, we realize that we are without His joy.
If our emotion is kept under the rule of the Lord with His pleasure and joy, it will be saturated with the spirit. We will then be transformed into the very image of the Lord from one degree of glory to another.
By dealing with our heart, conscience, fellowship, intuition, mind, will, and emotion, we will become mature and full grown, and we will have the stature of the Lord (Eph. 4:13). All we will need to do then is to wait for His coming to transfigure our body (Phil. 3:20-21). If our soul is transformed, spiritual strength and power will even now saturate our weak, mortal body when we need it (Rom. 8:11). We will not only be regenerated in our spirit and transformed in our soul, but the divine life will also saturate our mortal body in times of physical weakness. Finally, at the coming of the Lord our body will be transfigured, and our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—will be in the glorious image of the Lord. This will be the ultimate application of the Lord’s salvation, which is applied in three steps: (1) the regeneration of our spirit, (2) the transformation of our soul, and (3) the transfiguration of our body. At the present time we are in the process of transformation.
Our soul needs all these dealings: the dealings with the mind, with the will, and with the emotion. May the Lord help us to put these into practice. This is what the Lord’s children need today. All the teachings and the gifts are given by the Lord for this purpose. It is only by this process that we can be the proper materials for the building of the church.