The biggest fault of a believer is thinking about his past. Believers think that introspection is good. Actually, introspection cannot enable us to know ourselves. There is not one believer who acquires self-knowledge by looking into himself. The knowledge of one's self comes from God's light; only after he receives God's light will he know himself. (I have spoken in detail concerning the matter of self-knowledge. Please see "Self-knowledge and God's Light" in The Present Testimony.) Self-criticism, self-analyzing, or any thought concerning the self, whether good or bad, causes one's mind to become restless. We should not secretly compare ourselves to others, no matter who it is. Every time a believer looks at himself he will have no progress. Consider a person walking along the road: if he looks at himself, he will stop going forward. He cannot look at himself and walk forward at the same time. Therefore, whoever looks at himself is either going backward or standing still. The same is true in the spiritual realm. If you always consider yourself, eventually you will be very discouraged. If no one leads you on, you will put yourself in a dangerous position, and you may even think that you are not saved, that you have committed an unforgivable sin, or that God has forsaken you. All these are the results of your introspection. This is the condition of an unrenewed nous.
If our nous has not been renewed, we cannot minister to others what God has given us. Some believers are very capable in conversation. No matter how many matters are being discussed, they can relate them one by one in proper utterance. They truly have eloquence. But when you ask them to talk about spiritual things or about the truth, they cannot explain even one thing to others clearly. The reason is that their mind is not qualified to be used by God. Their mind is like a child's arm which cannot bear anything that weighs more than ten pounds. Their nous is too weak. Though they have many thoughts, they are all without order. They cannot understand what comes from God. They understand what they receive in their intuition, but they cannot compose what they understand into a proper teaching in order to share with others. This is because their nous has not been renewed. If God wants us to speak forth His Word, He will certainly give us the utterance. But even though this is necessary, if a person does not have a renewed nous, he cannot express what he has received within him. Suppose a believer has his nous enlightened but not completely renewed. As such, he cannot put together God's Word and minister it to others. We cannot regard such a one as our pattern, and we cannot presume that being enlightened once is enough. We should have a clearer understanding day after day and should be able to use words to express what we know inwardly, so that others may understand.
A believer needs to have a renewed nous to guide him through his days on earth. Otherwise, he will suffer loss and damage in his life. He will think wrongly of others. He will not be able to understand God's will. He will also think wrongly of himself. He will not be able to properly live his life. This is why everyone needs to seek after the renewing of the nous in a specific way. With the people in the world, there are only two categories: the saved and the perishing, the regenerated and the unregenerated, those in Christ and those in Adam. These differences are absolute; the two are completely dissimilar. In like manner, with the nous of the believers, there is also the renewed nous and the unrenewed nous. There is an absolute boundary between the two. If we are saved, our nous must also be renewed. Furthermore, the renewing of the nous should not occur just once, but daily. If we are like this, we will be very clear concerning God's will.
Once Mr. Moody was walking on the street. Suddenly, he went into the house of one of his neighbors and asked to be allowed to go upstairs to do something. The owner of the house agreed, and he went upstairs and prayed to God, "O God, Your hand should stop. It's too much; I cannot bear it." If you daily have a renewed nous, you will see that you cannot bear what God shows you of yourself through your nous. I say again, you should do this singleheartedly, just as you did when you were regenerated. If your regeneration has caused a change in your living, your nous should also be enlightened in a specific way and be renewed daily.