We have mentioned before how the soul-life is manifested. Now let me sum it up in the following sentence. The manifestation of the soul-life can very generally be classified into four categories: (1) using one's own natural ability; (2) being obstinate, stubborn, and disobedient to God; (3) pretending to be wise, having many opinions and plans; and (4) seeking spiritual experience through feelings. This is because (1) the soul-life itself is the natural ability, and the organ of the soul is divided into (2) the will, (3) the mind, and (4) the emotion.
Because the main parts of the soul are the mind, the emotion, and the will, many Christians, even though they are all soulish, have experiences that are quite different from one another. Some are inclined toward the mind, some lean toward the emotion, and some are bent toward the will. Although these aspects of living are totally different, they all are soulish living. Perhaps a believer who has an inclination toward the mind may discern another who inclines toward the emotion as being soulish, and in the meantime the one having an inclination toward the emotion may, in return, discern the mind-inclined one as being soulish. Actually these two persons are both soulish. The most important thing for believers to do is apply the light revealed by God to illuminate their true condition so that the truth might set them free, instead of using their new knowledge as the yardstick to criticize others. If the children of God are willing to apply God's light to illuminate themselves, their spiritual life will not be as it is today.
The seeking of the mind and its receiving and spreading of truth are the main manifestations of one's being soulish. Even the most spiritual experience and the highest truth merely become a cultivation of the mind. Although one's life is not unaffected, his original goal is to satisfy the mind. When believers are soulish and are controlled by the mind, their mind is full of spiritual desires. But they rely on their own thought more than on God's revelation. What they plan with their mind is more than their prayer and dependence on God.
The experiences that are most often misunderstood as being spiritual relate to the emotion. A believer who is soulish and inclined toward the emotion is always seeking for feelings in his life. He wants to feel the presence of God in his heart or in his bodily organs, to feel the burning of "love-fire," to feel happy, to feel a high spirit, and to feel the work moving smoothly. The truly spiritual believer sometimes has these kinds of feelings also, but he does not depend on these kinds of feelings to go on and to be glad. The emotional believer can serve the Lord only when he has these kinds of feelings. When he does not have such feelings, he will not go on even one step further.
The will is a common manifestation of the soulish life. The will is the organ of one's self-governing. Thus, through the will a soulish believer makes "self" the focal point of all his thoughts, words, acts, and living. What he wants to understand is for himself. What he desires to feel is for his own enjoyment. The work he does is according to his own plan. The goal of his behaving is to glorify himself. His focal point is himself.
We have already seen that in the Bible the word soul is translated as living thing and animal. Therefore, the meaning of this word in the original language was "the animal life." This makes us understand what the manifestation of the soul-life really is. We may use one very fitting sentence to demonstrate the life and work of a soulish believer: they are nothing but "animal activities" or "animal liveliness." He makes many plans, he does much work, his mind is busy, and his emotion is distracted—his whole being within and without is full of restlessness and confusion. When his emotion is stirred up, the other parts of his being are surely excited. But when his emotion is cooled down, even though his feelings may become cooler, he is still very bewildered in his mind and in his will. The soulish believer's living is full of activity all day long. He is active either in his body, or in his mind and emotion. This kind of life is nothing but a life full of "animal liveliness," far away from the spiritual life of God as the Lord of everything.
In conclusion, the work of the soul is to cause the believer to live by his own natural life; to work and to serve God by his own ability and will; to seek to know the Lord, draw close to the Lord, and know the Lord's presence by his feelings; and to use the ability of his mind to understand the Word of God, to calculate, to plan, and to infer.
If a believer does not receive God's revelation of Himself and thus serves God and does work for God through the ability of his created life, he will cause himself to suffer the greatest spiritual loss, and what he does will lack true spiritual fruit. A believer must be under God's revelation so that he can realize that it is very shameful before God for him to use the ability of the created animal life to please God and to do spiritual work. When we see an ambitious child having high self-esteem and being boastful and self- exalted, we feel shameful for him. This is the same way God looks at our "animal activities!" May we have more experiences of being in the ashes than of being preeminent before others.