We ourselves must learn how to discern the spirit and exercise the spirit. Then we will know how to help others. I believe that we all know something about the discernment of the spirit, but we still do not know much. In the past few days a brother and his wife stayed in my home, and we had many talks. If you would ask me what I learned from all these talks, I would have to testify that I learned only one thing: I did not exercise my spirit enough. I exercised some, but not adequately; that was my failure.
We may illustrate how we do not exercise our spirit adequately in the following way. I may come to two brothers and say, “Brothers, do you know Matthew 13? Tell me a little about it.” This will put them on the test, because it will be very easy for them to be tempted not to exercise their spirit when they answer. They may explain at length, saying, “We have heard a message that tells us that the parables in Matthew 13 are composed of six plus one, and also four plus three. The first four are of one kind, and the last three are of another kind.” They may speak for two or three hours, but their talk may be miserable. If we learn the lesson adequately, then when someone asks a question, we will not care for the question. Rather, we will care for contacting the Lord. While we are being asked, we will right away contact the Lord, saying, “Lord, what will you have me to say?” We will not exercise our mind to consider six plus one or four plus three. Instead, we will see something from our spirit and from the Holy Spirit.
It is easy to be tempted to talk about many things. After my many talks with the brother in my home, I had to ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. I talked about many right things, but I did not exercise my spirit adequately. The only way to minister life to others is to exercise our spirit. If we are not in the spirit, regardless of how much we speak, we can help people only in their mentality; we can never minister life to them. This is a real lesson. I have been practicing this for more than thirty years, but concerning this matter I may not have graduated from “high school.” To say, “Exercise the spirit!” is easy, but the entire, proper Christian life depends on this one matter.
If we do not have a love for the Lord, we cannot exercise our spirit. Likewise, if we constantly have something accusing us in our conscience, we are finished with the exercise of the spirit. To exercise the spirit requires a love for the Lord and a pure conscience. After we have love and a pure conscience, we must learn the lesson of always exercising our spirit. To be soulish is easier than to be sinful. It is not easy for you to induce me to be sinful, but it may be very easy to induce me to be soulish. For many seeking Christians it is not easy to be sinful-it is not easy, for example, to tell a lie-but it is very easy to be soulish, to say things in the soul, to do things in the soul, to contact people in the soul, and to deal with things in the soul. If we do not exercise the spirit, we are merely in the soul.
If we are about to argue with someone and we say to ourselves, “I must try not to argue with people,” that will not work. The more we try not to argue, the more we will argue. Everyone who makes up his mind not to argue, argues all the more. We should forget about arguing and learn to always exercise our spirit. When we exercise our spirit, all the arguments are gone. The only way for us to be delivered from arguing, or from anything in the soul, is to forget about the soul, forget about all things related to the soul, and learn to exercise the spirit. Then when we meet a brother, we will not need to tell ourselves not to argue; we will know only to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord. Then we will have the growth.
I can assure you that regardless of how many messages we have heard, how many books we have read, and how many times we have read the whole Bible, if we do not start to exercise our spirit, we will not have real growth. We will have only the growth of knowledge in our mentality. We may know more Bible teachings and more of Christianity, and we may have a certain kind of increase and growth, but we do not have the growth in life until we know how to exercise our spirit.
To know the spirit in this way is to be strengthened into the inner man. Ephesians 3:16 says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” The inner man, that is, the spirit, needs to be strengthened. We all have to learn to exercise the spirit. All weaknesses, problems, confusions, and disturbances come from the soul. There is no need to deal with all these things. Simply forget about the soul and learn to exercise the spirit. Then all the problems will be resolved. Try this, and put it into practice; then you will see that this is exactly true. We are short of this today. I have been in Los Angeles, ministering something of the spirit at least one or two hundred times, but I do not have the confidence that many of us practice this daily. If we practice this, there will be the real growth.
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