We have mentioned earlier the matter of our natural abilities. Some people are more intelligent; they are naturally sharper than others. Some people are very eloquent; when they speak, their arguments are always very reasonable. Some people are very analytical; they can analyze a problem logically. Some people are very strong physically; they can labor day and night without any rest. Some people are very capable; they are very good at managing affairs. We know that God does use man's natural abilities, but man often takes occasion in God's use of his abilities to trust in all his natural abilities. For example, here may be one person who is slow in communication but capable in managing affairs, and another person may be very eloquent but incapable in managing affairs. If the Lord asks both to give a message, the first one will surely feel that he is slow in utterance and that he must therefore fully trust in the Lord. The second one will consider himself very eloquent. Although he also will pray, he will not be as desperate as the first one. On the other hand, if the Lord asks both of them to manage an affair, the first one will not trust in the Lord as desperately as the second one! Our natural ability is the power of our soul-life. We do not realize how much we are confident in ourselves and how much we depend on the power of the soul when we work! In God's view, too many of our works are done through the power of the soul.
Some emotions originate from ourselves. Others originate from other people. Sometimes our loved ones are not saved, or they have not come up to our expectation. As a result we are stirred up. We try our best to save them or to edify them. This kind of work is usually ineffective, for the motive of such work originates from our emotion. Sometimes we receive special grace from God; our hearts are filled with light and joy. It seems that a fire is burning within which gives us unspeakable joy. At such times, the presence of God becomes very real. When our soul is stirred up this way, emotional feelings run high. At such times, it is easy to work for the Lord. Our hearts feel as if they are ready to overflow. We can hardly hold ourselves back from speaking to others about the Lord. Ordinarily, we may be conscious that we ought to be careful in our words. However, at such times when the heart is filled with special light, we babble unceasingly about the things of God. Such works are fully of the emotion. Some think that they can only work when they sense this kind of fire in their hearts and when they themselves are carried away as if in the third heavens. When the Lord takes away this "noticeable" joy, such ones will feel that tons of weight have come on their shoulders and that they cannot go one step further. Sometimes their hearts are cold as ice; there are no emotional feelings at all. At such times, they feel that they can no longer preach. They feel dry and cold within. As a result, they are unable to work. Even when they force themselves to work, they have absolutely no taste for it. Their labors are absolutely controlled by their inward feelings. When the right feelings are present, they soar like eagles. When the right feelings are gone, they wobble and refuse to go forward. Feelings, stimulations, and emotions are all parts of the soul-life. Hence, those saints who are dominated by their feelings, stimulations, and emotions are working by the power of their soul-life. They are not yet capable of putting these things to death and still are not able to work in the spirit.
Our work is often influenced or controlled by our mind. Because we do not know how to seek after God's will, many times we take the thoughts of the mind as God's will and are led astray. To go along with the mind and to base one's conduct on the mind is a very dangerous thing. Sometimes when we prepare a sermon, we try hard to exercise our mind to come up with outlines, sections, expositions, significances, and examples. Such sermons are very dead. They may stir up others' attention and may generate some interest, but they cannot dispense life to others.
There is another work of the mind. I believe many of God's workers often find themselves falling into such ill. It is the memory. We often preach to others from our memory! We memorize the messages that we have heard, and we speak to others from what we remember. Sometimes we speak to others from the Scriptures that we have memorized or from our old sermons, old commentaries. These are all works of the mind. This does not mean that we have never experienced what we preach. Perhaps what we know and what we remember are things taught by God. Perhaps we have indeed experienced the things we know and remember. However, this does not take away the fact that they are still works of the mind. We may have experienced a truth, which at the time of our experience may have been life to us. However, after a while the knowledge of the truth remains only in our head. We begin to preach from our memory the truth that we formerly experienced, but this has become merely a work of the mind. Our mind and memory are both organs of the soul. For us to trust in our mind and memory is for us to trust in the power of the soul-life. We are still under the control of the natural life.
These three things are the chief items in the work of the soul. This type of soulish work is not sin or absolutely incapable of saving people. However, the fruit will be rare. We should overcome this work of the soul by trusting in the cross. The Lord Jesus told us that the soul-life should fall into the ground and die like a grain of wheat. According to our experience, we love our natural abilities very much. We love our feelings, and we trust in our mind. However, our Lord told us that we should hate our soul-life. If we do not hate it but instead love it, we will lose the power of the extraordinary spiritual life. In this matter, the death of the cross should perform a deep work. We should hand over to the cross the soul-life which we cherish. We should be willing to die with the Lord here and remove our dependence on the natural abilities, the feelings, and the mind. We are not removing these works with reluctance. Rather, we hate these works from our heart. In our work, we should not only be unconcerned about having or not having natural abilities and we should not only be unconcerned about having or not having emotions and thoughts, but we should go further to nurture a direct hatred for such power of the natural life and be willing to hand them over to the crucifixion of the cross.
If we take the constant attitude of hating our soul-life on the negative side and if we will not compromise at all, we will learn in experience how to trust in the power of the spiritual life and bear fruit unto God.