As we learn to touch the Spirit in fellowship, we must realize that the one thing that can distract our spirit, or we may say, that can distract us from touching the Spirit, is our soul. Our soul is a distraction, a powerful distraction, which hinders us from touching the Spirit. We all know that our soul consists of three parts—mind, emotion, and will. Whenever our mind moves, our soul moves; whenever our will moves, our soul also moves. The soul is a distraction to the spirit; hence, to touch the spirit, we must be delivered from the soul and reject the soul. Because our soul is composed of the mind, emotion, and will, to reject the soul is to reject the distractions from our mind, emotion, and will. If we do not learn how to reject the distractions that come from our mind, emotion, and will, we will not be able to touch the sense of the Spirit. This requires exercise.
For example, while we are praying on our knees in the morning, many thoughts often arise in our mind: one moment we may be thinking about America, and the next moment we are thinking about Africa. Our thoughts simply wander all over the place. Such thoughts are very distracting to our prayers, and we know that we need to reject them. However, there are other thoughts which are counterfeit thoughts. These thoughts are difficult to perceive and difficult to recognize as being in need of rejection—they are the thoughts and suggestions from Satan concerning how we should pray. For example, one moment he may remind us of the needs of the church in another locality, then he will remind us of the spreading of the work, and at still another moment he will remind us of certain saints who are ill, weak, or backslidden. Satan can give many seemingly good and spiritual thoughts while we are praying in order to make us think that these matters are very important. He does not distract us with thoughts of America and Africa; rather, he reminds us of the needs of the churches, the problems concerning our work, and the conditions of the saints, all of which are spiritual and reasonable matters. As a result, we pray according to these thoughts.
Once we pray according to these thoughts, we are no longer in the Spirit because these thoughts belong to the soul, which distract us from the Spirit and cause us to lose the fellowship. Whenever we get out of the Spirit, the fellowship will be cut off, because for us to touch the fellowship, we must touch the Spirit. Therefore, even when seemingly good suggestions and thoughts come up, we need to be careful about praying according to those thoughts because this can interrupt the fellowship between us and the Spirit, causing us to lose the fellowship. Some brothers and sisters may ask what to do when such thoughts arise. At these times, we should learn to touch the sense of the Spirit in us, follow the Spirit, and pray according to the sense of the Spirit. We should not pray according to our thoughts; instead, we should pray according to the sense of the Spirit.
We should pray according to the sense of the Spirit rather than our thoughts because the moment we pray according to our thoughts, we leave the fellowship. How do we know that we have left the fellowship? When we pray according to our thoughts, even if we are praying for good and godly things, we will feel weak, depressed, dark, empty, and in pain. When we pray for the church and the work according to our thoughts, we will feel empty and weak; the more we pray, the lower we will sink, and the darker and more uneasy we will feel. All the feelings of death that we have while watching a movie can be present even in our prayers. This shows that if our prayers do not originate from the Spirit and are not in the Spirit, they will cause us to depart from the fellowship and be cut off from the fellowship.
Since fellowship is so important, what is the function of fellowship? The function of fellowship is to supply us with God’s life. If we live in the fellowship, there will be a continual supply of God’s life within us. The more we pray, the more we will be strengthened. The more we pray, the more we will be satisfied. The more we pray, the more we will rejoice. The more we pray, the more we will be enlightened. And the more we pray, the more we will be refreshed and soothed. This proves that we are praying in fellowship because fellowship brings in the supply of life, and life brings a sense of strength, satisfaction, joy, enlightenment, freshness, and ease. When we have these feelings within, we are praying in the Spirit, and we are in the fellowship because we have touched the Spirit.
When we practice to have fellowship, we need to practice to touch the inner sense, because it is the most accurate manifestation of the Spirit in us. The Spirit is where our life is, and life is the source of fellowship. In other words, fellowship is of life, and life is in the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is in our spirit. In order to practice fellowship, we need to learn to touch the sense in the Spirit because the manifestation of the Spirit is in the inner sense. We must also learn to reject the soul because of its distractions. Every part of the soul—the mind, emotion, and will—is a distraction to the Spirit. Therefore, as we learn to touch the Spirit, we must reject the soul.
I hope that we will begin to exercise ourselves to pray, not from our mind, emotion, or will but rather from the sense of the Spirit. This exercise is even more difficult than reading spiritual publications. We can understand spiritual publications after reading them several times, but this exercise requires us to turn to our spirit day by day and moment by moment.