A regenerated believer, with his spirit enlivened and the Holy Spirit indwelling him, can still remain a carnal or fleshly believer, with his spirit still oppressed by his soul or body. There is a specific path that a regenerated believer should specifically take in order to succeed in becoming spiritual.
Briefly, there can be at least two great changes in the life of a human being—changing from a perishing sinner into a saved believer and changing from a fleshly believer into a spiritual one. Just as a sinner can, in fact, become a believer, a fleshly believer can, in fact, become a spiritual one. God can cause a sinner to become a believer and have His life; God can also cause a fleshly believer to become a spiritual believer and have His life more abundantly. Once a man believes in Christ, he becomes a regenerated believer; once he obeys the Holy Spirit, he becomes a spiritual believer. When a man has a normal relationship with Christ, he becomes a Christian; and when a man has a normal relationship with the Holy Spirit, he becomes a spiritual man.
Only the Holy Spirit can make a believer spiritual. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make a man spiritual. In the arrangement of God's way of redemption, on the negative side, the cross carries out a destructive work, destroying everything that is from Adam. The Holy Spirit, on the positive side, carries out a constructive work, building up everything that is from Christ. The cross makes it possible for the believers to be spiritual, and the Holy Spirit makes believers spiritual. Being spiritual means belonging to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit strengthens the human spirit so that He may rule over the whole person. Therefore, if we pursue being spiritual, we should not forget the Holy Spirit and not put the cross aside, because the cross and the Holy Spirit work as the left and right hands. Neither can be spared and neither of these two work independently. The cross always guides man to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit always guides man to the cross. A spiritual believer must have experiences in his spirit with the Holy Spirit. If he wants to become a spiritual man, he must have several steps of experience. Paying attention to these steps does not necessarily mean proceeding from step one to step two and from step two to step three. For the sake of writing, however, they have to be written in sequence, although in actual experience they often occur simultaneously.
Although there are many things we want to mention about how believers progress to become spiritual men, believers should not forget previous teachings (Section Two, Chapters Four and Five). Believers should know that what hinders a man from being spiritual is the flesh. Therefore, if a believer can assume the final attitude that he should have toward the flesh, then he will progress easily. It is marvelous that the more a man is spiritual, the more he knows the flesh and discovers about the flesh. If a man does not know the flesh, he is not spiritual. All of the things previously mentioned about the flesh (Section Two, Chapter Five) are the foundations for one to pursue being spiritual and cannot be neglected by anyone. If we do not pay attention to the flesh, no matter what kind of progress there may be, it will all be vain, superficial, and unreal. Actually, when a believer knows how to deny the flesh and its activities, abilities, and opinions in all things, we can say that this man is spiritual. But, we would again like to mention something positive which is directly related to the spirit.