To live in ascension requires that we discern our spirit from our soul. This is according to our experience.
We are of three parts. We have a spirit, a soul (the self), and a body (1 Thes. 5:23). God’s economy in saving us is first to regenerate our dead spirit by imparting Himself into it as the divine element, making our spirit new. However, our soul is still old. Hence, after we have been regenerated, our soul needs to be transformed. The transformation of the soul is a gradual process that takes place step by step. Our body is also old. Therefore, the body, the outer man, needs to be consumed day by day, while the inner man is being renewed (2 Cor. 4:16). This renewing will go on and on until it reaches its peak with the transfiguration of our body, that is, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21).
As saved persons we all have two men. The new man is in our spirit, and the old man is in our soul. Regardless of whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, whatever we do, if we do it in our soul, we are living by the old man. For instance, you may love a certain brother and want to help him. But if you love him and help him not in your spirit but in your soul, you are living in your self, the old man. This is to do a good thing in the old man. Before doing anything—in this case helping a brother—we must first pray to contact the Lord in our spirit, asking Him what He feels about what we intend to do. Then in our spirit we may have the sense that the Lord is happy. This is an indication that the Lord wants us to do this particular thing. Then we should proceed to do it in our spirit. This is to live in the spirit.
If we do things by the old man in the soul or in the self, we are living on the earth. The things we do may be good, but we are nevertheless on the earth because we are living in the soul. Today there are many good people who are doing good things, but these people are all living in the soul. As lovers of Christ, we need to realize that our old man, including our soul, has been crucified (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20a). It is no longer “I” who live, but another man—Christ—lives in me (Gal. 2:20b). When we live by this other man, we are the new man, for we are living in the spirit, not in the soul.
Our spirit is connected to the heavens by God as the Spirit. In spirit we are therefore in the heavens, in ascension. To live in ascension requires that we live, act, move, and do everything in our spirit. Thus, we must learn how to discern our spirit. If we do not know our spirit, if we do not know how to discern our spirit from our soul, we cannot be a spiritual person. When we live in our spirit, we are in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. We are a new person living in a new universe.
We should not think that discerning the spirit from the soul is something that is too difficult for us to learn. We all can learn how to do this if we practice one thing: We should always inquire of the Lord: “Lord, is this the old man, the soul, the old `I’ only, or You with me?” If we sense that we are alone in the old “I,” then we are in the soul, in the old man. If we sense that we are one with the Lord and that He is with us, then we are in the spirit. If we have proper fellowship with the Lord, inquiring of Him before doing things, then in our spirit we will have a deep sense of the Lord’s feeling. We will know whether He is happy or not. This is to discern the soul from the spirit to live in ascension. May we all learn to have this most important practice in our daily living.