A person who lives by his soul may be good, proper, and nice, but he does not understand or desire spiritual things. I have met quite a number of brothers and sisters who do things cautiously and can be considered blameless in their conduct, but regarding spiritual things they are absolutely ignorant and have no pursuit. Their assessment of themselves and others is based on the ethical standards of good or evil and right or wrong. In every matter and toward everyone they lack the spiritual feeling and insight of God. They may have a clear mind and be very rational, but they are unclear in their spirit and dull in their feeling. Humanly speaking, they are truly good. They know how to behave and how to handle things, and they are also intelligent, efficient, diligent, and thoughtful. However, regarding the spiritual things of God, they have no discernment, feeling, or understanding. Moreover, they are often indifferent to spiritual things and are not only slow in understanding them but also slothful in pursuing them. Therefore, a good Christian may not necessarily be a spiritual Christian. A spiritual Christian is not merely a good person but one who lives in the spirit, has the feeling of the spirit, understands spiritual things, and knows the way of God inwardly.
Being good is very different from being spiritual. Many saints are good but not spiritual; they are good, but they do not live in the spirit. Others can sense their goodness, but they cannot sense the spirit; they can see their virtues, but they cannot smell the flavor of God. They do not appear fleshly, but they are soulish. Although they do not indulge themselves in the flesh, they do not live in the spirit either. Although they do not live in sin, they live in the self. Although they do not approve of sinful things, they do not desire spiritual things. Although they do not sin according to the flesh, they live by their soul. Their soul is the source and means of their living. They live in and by the soul, and they are of the soul. Therefore, they neither desire nor comprehend spiritual things.
In the soul there are three different parts: the mind is the part related to thought, the emotion is the part related to love, and the will is the part related to choosing. If we meet a person who is directed by the mind, the most prominent part of his being will be his mind, his thought, and his intellect. Although he is not without emotion, his emotion is not as prominent as his mind. In contrast, a person who is directed by his emotion is often confused and unreasonable. When others reason with him, he becomes emotionally aroused. A proverb says that a thousand reasons are not as powerful as a teardrop. If we desire that he be moved, all we need to do is shed a tear. With only one tear his heart is touched. A person who is not rational in this regard will always act according to his emotion. Most sisters are directed by their emotion. Lastly, a person who is directed by the will is very strong in his decisions. Once he has determined a course of action, no one can change him. Such a stubborn person can be very unreasonable and obstinate. A stubborn person is definitely a person of the will.
All these kinds of people are soulish. Whether they are directed by the mind, the emotion, or the will, they are soulish as long as they are directed by any of these three faculties. This is because the mind, emotion, and will are the three major parts of the soul. If we desire to learn to discern the spirit from the soul, we must have an accurate sense of the things that are related to the mind, emotion, and will. Is our mind the source of our every action, thought, or preference? Is our emotion the source? Is our will the source of our actions, thoughts, or preferences? If any of these three parts is the source, we are soulish men who live in the soul, not in the spirit.
A person who lives by the spirit is a spiritual man. A spiritual man does not take the mind, emotion, or will as his source. Rather, he turns to the innermost part of his being and takes its sense as his source. His living, action, and work are all derived from this innermost sense. His innermost sense should have the most important position, the leading position; it should direct his mind, emotion, and will. He should consider the sense of life in his spirit as the principal source and his mind, emotion, and will in his soul as the means of expressing the source. In other words, his inner sense is the dominating factor, and his mind, emotion, and will are merely supportive.
Since man is an emotional being, some saints who work for the Lord use emotions to touch people according to their emotion. For example, a brother whom we serve may be very quiet. It may be especially difficult for him to talk with us because it seems that he does not have a good feeling about us. Consequently, we may buy him a Bible with gold trim. Out of concern that this may not be enough to move him, we will add a deluxe edition of Streams in the Desert and a hymnal of selected hymns. Since man is an emotional being, he will be moved, and his emotion will be stimulated. Instantly, emotion becomes the dominating factor between us, but if emotion becomes preeminent, we will have no sense of peace and rest deep within.
According to our emotion, we may have a feeling to give people a Bible, Streams in the Desert, or a hymnal because they are good books. However, once we touch a person’s emotion in this way, he will fellowship and contact us by his emotion. As a result of this kind of fellowship and contact, we also will fall into our emotion. At some point, however, we may sense that we are only in our emotions rather than loving one another and fellowshipping in the Lord. This sense deep within is the sense of our spirit. This feeling exposes that even though we care about this brother, we are indifferent toward other saints. If we say that we are short of strength and can be touched only by the problems of one brother, this shows that we are in our emotions.
When we contact the saints in our emotion, there may be a deep feeling which makes us uneasy as our spirit rises up to protest and object. As our spirit rises up, we may also become clear that our spirit is “deflated” and weakened when we pray, even though it seemed “sweet” when we contacted and fellowshipped with the saints according to our emotion. The more we fellowship with the saints in our emotion, the more our emotion will be nurtured and strengthened, and the more our spirit will be dried up and weakened. Consequently, when we pray before the Lord, we will not have the strength, and our spirit will be “deflated.” When a ball does not have enough air, it will not sound right when it bounces. Similarly, when we pray, those who have some spiritual sense know whether our spirit is fully “inflated.” This is the difference between being emotional and being spiritual, between living according to the emotion and living according to the spirit.
Problems with the mind are evident mainly among the brothers because they often have a strong will and logical thinking. When brothers desire to do a certain thing, they can argue one way or another, and both ways can seem reasonable. Since either way seems sensible, it is easy to decide to proceed. However, when we proceed, there can be a disapproving feeling deep within us. Although the way seems reasonable according to observation and analysis, deep within us we can sense that something is not right. This feeling deep within is the feeling of the spirit. At such a time, we should take care of this sense rather than our reasonings. If we care about our reasonings rather than our sense within, we will nullify our spirit and live in our soul. However, if we care only about the sense deep within, we will live in and by the spirit. As a result, we will live not in ourselves but in God.
This shows that regardless of the condition of our emotion or mind, neither one should have the preeminent position. They should only support the sense in our spirit. We must learn to give preeminence to the sense in our spirit. For example, someone may have determined what message to deliver and how to organize and present it. However, when he is about to speak, he may sense within that something is not right, even to the point of needing to change to another topic. At this moment, he should not follow his original consideration and decision; instead, he should follow the sense in his spirit. If he ignores the inward sense and follows his original consideration, he will be denying the spirit and living in the soul.
I hope we can see that our emotion, mind, and will are outward; only the spirit is inward. Our emotion is often contrary to the sense deep within, our will is often different from the sense deep within, and our mind often opposes the sense deep within. Therefore, we need to give the highest position, the first place, to the sense in our spirit deep within us. We must be willing to put aside the emotion, mind, and will of the soul. In our daily living and even in our walk, we must first touch the sense deep within. This is to turn to God and to the spirit because God as the Spirit dwells in our spirit.
God makes known His intention to us through the intuition in our spirit. Hence, we should not look merely at the outward situation, but we should also bring the outward situation before God and turn to our spirit to touch the sense of God. Turning to God, experientially speaking, is to inwardly turn so that we can focus on the spirit as our inward part rather than on our outward observations and environment. Although we will have thoughts in our mind and feelings in our emotion about a certain matter, we still need to turn to our spirit. We should not let our emotion, mind, and will dominate our being; rather, we should let the sense in our spirit be the leading factor. We must exercise to discern the spirit from the soul.