The reason we have made the effort to speak so much on the distinction between the spirit and the soul and their activities is to bring us to this point. What a God-seeking believer should fear the most is the activity of the soul beyond the limitation set up by God. The soul has been in control for a long time. Even when one is willing to consecrate himself to God, he still may hold the thought that it is his work now and that he has to complete what he is consecrating in order to please God. Many believers do not know how deeply the cross should work, working even to the extent that the believer should reject his ability to make his own living. Many believers do not see the reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Neither do they know how great an authority He should have, to the extent that the mind, will, and feelings of the whole being should be under His subjection until there is no self-reliance at all. Unless it is so, the Holy Spirit cannot do the work He wants to do. The greatest temptation a believer who is diligently seeking God faces, is that of using his own ability to will and do God's work and not humbly waiting and relying on the Holy Spirit to move.
The calling of the cross of the Lord Jesus is for us to hate our soul-life so that we find the opportunity to lose it and not preserve it. The Lord's intention is that the self must and should be sacrificed and offered up completely so that the Holy Spirit may work. All opinion, work, and thinking ability in the soul-life must be willing to be put to death so that we can regain His true life by the life and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Lord spoke of the matter of our hating or loving our soul-life. The soul is self-loving. If we do not from our heart truly hate our natural life, we cannot have a real living in the Holy Spirit. If a believer has not seen this, he will not be fearful of his self and his own intelligence and will not completely rely on, wait upon, and look to the Holy Spirit. These are the primary requirements for the spiritual life.
The war between the soul and the spirit goes on secretly and without ceasing inside the believer. The soul, on behalf of the self, wants to be the head and act by itself. The spirit, on behalf of God, wants to gain all and be the master with full authority. In this situation, if the spirit has not gained the victory, the soul takes the lead in everything. If a believer thus allows himself to be the master and expects the Holy Spirit to be his help and bless his work, he will unavoidably lose the spiritual fruit. If we do not reject our self and lose our soul-life, but instead follow its idea, opinion, and suggestion, and if we do not constantly deny its right and unconditionally and unreservedly put it in the ashes, without longing for what we have lost, we cannot expect to have a spiritual life and work that pleases God. Unless we willingly deliver the power, the eagerness, the liveliness, the running, etc., of the soul-life to the cross and maintain a steady attitude of hating the soul-life, it will seize the chance to rise up. The reason we have so many failures in our spiritual life is that the aspect of the soul has not been dealt with thoroughly, while we still hope to overcome it by gaining more of the Holy Spirit and power. If the soul-life is not lost through death but is allowed to be mixed with the spirit, the believers will continue to fail just as before. If our life does not completely manifest the power of the Holy Spirit of God, before long we will have more failures due to the wisdom and opinions of man.