An erring spirit often leads to improper conduct. If a believer desires to walk according to the spirit, he must continuously keep himself in a proper condition. The spirit, like the mind, can become unrestrained and insolent, or it can shrink back. Without the Holy Spirit guarding his spirit, a believer will fail in his outward conduct once his spirit fails. We should realize that behind the many failures in outward conduct, the spirit has failed even before the conduct failed. If the spirit of a believer is strong and powerful, it can control the soul and body, not allowing them to become dissolute, regardless of circumstances. Otherwise, they will suppress the spirit and cause a believer to fall.
God emphasizes our spirit. This is where the new life dwells and the Holy Spirit works. This is where we fellowship with God, understand God's will, and receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit. This is where we are trained and have growth. This is where we resist all the attacks of the enemy and obtain authority to overcome the devil and his army. This is also where we receive power for the work. The spirit has received the resurrection life, only later will we have a body of resurrection. Therefore, the condition of our spirit will also be the condition of our spiritual life. Therefore, it is very important to keep our spirit in a proper condition. The Lord does not care for the outward man, the soul, in a Christian; He pays attention to our inward man, the spirit. If our inward man is not in a proper condition, our entire living will be upside-down, even though our soul-life is still very prosperous.
The Bible is not silent regarding the proper condition of the believer's spirit. Many experienced believers have already passed through the exhortations of the Bible. They are aware that a believer must keep his spirit in the various conditions taught in the Bible if he wants to keep his victorious position and ability to co-labor with God. We have already seen that the spirit is controlled by the believer's renewed will. This is very important because a believer can put his spirit in its proper position only by his will. Since we have already mentioned the importance of the spirit being in a proper condition, we do not need to repeat it.
"Jehovah...saves those who are contrite in spirit" (Psa. 34:18). "For thus says the high and exalted One,/Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:/I will dwell in the high and holy place,/And with the contrite and lowly of spirit" (Isa. 57:15).
It is a common misunderstanding to think that we need a contrite spirit only when we repent to believe in the Lord or when we fall and commit sins. But God wants us to continually keep our spirit in a state of contriteness. Even though we may not commit sins daily, God wants us to constantly repent with contrition because our flesh still exists, and it can be active anytime. Such a spirit will keep us from losing our watchfulness. We should never commit sins, but we should continually be contrite because we are sinful. The presence of God can be felt in such a spirit.
God does not want us to occasionally repent, thinking that this is enough; He wants us to continually repent with contrition in our living. Consequently, as soon as there is any discord with the Holy Spirit in our living and conduct, we can immediately sense it and grieve over it. Only by this can we admit that we are wrong when people tell us that we are really wrong. Repentance with contrition is very necessary because a believer, even though joined to the Lord in one spirit, still can err. The spirit can err (Isa. 29:24); even if the spirit does not err, the mind can become blurred, not knowing how to execute the intent of the spirit. A contrite spirit can cause a believer to immediately admit, without any cover-up, the small matters that others see in him that are unlike the Lord. God saves only those with a contrite spirit; He cannot save any other because He needs a contrite spirit to reveal His intent. Whoever covers-up and whitewashes his mistakes definitely does not have a contrite spirit. Even God cannot completely save him. We need a spirit that can receive rebuke from the Holy Spirit as well as from people in the world, and we need to admit that we have not reached the stage where we should be. Then we shall see the salvation of God in our daily living.