One more matter requires our attention. There is a great danger for us to live excessively by our own spirit or walk excessively according to our own spirit. Although the Bible attaches great importance to the individual spirit of the believer, we may fall into the danger of being extreme. The importance of a believer's spirit is due to its being indwellt by the Holy Spirit. We live and walk according to the spirit because this spirit is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who makes known His will through our spirit. The guidance and restriction we receive are the guidance and restriction of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit moves through our spirit when we pay much attention it, we also pay considerable attention to our spirit, an organ usable by Him. But there is a danger, having understood the work and function of the human spirit, of relying solely on the spirit and forgetting that it is merely a servant of the Holy Spirit. The One that we directly look to for leading us into all truth is not our spirit but the Holy Spirit. We must realize that apart from the Holy Spirit, the human spirit is just as useless as the other parts of our being. We must never reverse the positions of the human spirit and the Holy Spirit. We have spoken in great detail of the human spirit only because believers today hardly know its functions. This does not mean that the position of the Holy Spirit within man is lower than that of the human spirit. We need to understand the human spirit in order that we may better know how to obey and exalt the Holy Spirit.

This is greatly related to receiving guidance. From the beginning, the imparting of the Holy Spirit is meant for the entire Body of Christ. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the individual believer is due to His indwelling in the entire Body of Christ, because a believer is a member in the Body. The work of the Holy Spirit is of a corporate nature (1 Cor. 12:12). He guides individuals because He guides the whole Body. The guidance of the individual is for the whole Body. The actions of a member affect the entire Body. The leading of the Holy Spirit in our spirit individually must be related to the other members. All spiritual leadings are the leading of the Body. Therefore, even though we may have the leading individually in our spirit, we still should seek the concurrence, the proof, and the sympathy from the spirit of "two or three" other members. Such actions in the relatedness of the Body must never be neglected in a spiritual work. Much of the failure, fighting, hatred, division, shame, and pain is due to believers (with good intentions), who acted alone according to their own spirit. Hence, all the believers following the spirit ought to judge whether their guidance comes from the Holy Spirit according to the relatedness of the spiritual Body. Our work, actions, faith, and teachings must be by the relatedness of the members.

In his last journey to Jerusalem, the apostle Paul fell into this mistake. God allowed His best apostle to err in order to teach us. In Paul's mistake, God was especially merciful to cover him. Only out of this mistake could he witness at Rome and have time to write so many Epistles. Paul thought that he was "bound in the spirit" (Acts 20:22) to go up, but the Bible says that the disciples at Tyre, who were moved by the Holy Spirit, told him not to go up (Acts 21:4). Although we know that God was especially merciful to cover the apostle in this failure, we should see the principle of God's leading—not only is it of the individual but also of the corporate body. A spiritual believer should know when to go on alone, without regard to others' advice, and when to listen to his brothers.

In summary, there are many traps along the roadside of the spiritual path. A little carelessness can defeat a believer. We have no shortcuts. Learning a little knowledge cannot safeguard us forever. On the contrary, everything must be personally experienced by us. Those who were before us can only point out the coming dangers to save us from falling. There is no such thing as expecting certain methods to help us bypass considerable travel on the spiritual path. Faithful followers of the Lord will always see fewer unnecessary failures.