Our soul has three parts—our mind, emotion, and will. These three components represent our whole being. Looking from the outside, our whole person is comprised of the activities of these three parts—the mind, emotion, and will. Our thinking, consideration, and reasoning are functions of the mind. Our likes, dislikes, and feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight are the functions of the emotion. To decide, determine, and choose are functions of the will. Our living cannot be separated from these three parts. When we were saved, the Lord’s life and the Lord’s Spirit entered into our spirit. However, our mind, emotion, and will still may not have the Spirit of the Lord. When we think, consider, and reason, the Lord may not be in our thoughts, considerations, and reasonings. Of course, when we pray, we are in spirit, we have fellowship with the Lord, we feel the presence of the Lord, and we can touch the Lord. But as soon as we finish our prayer, our mind begins to think about our business, our studies, or our children. The Spirit is not in our mind at all.
When we first get saved, the Spirit is not only not in our mind, the Spirit is also not in our emotion. For example, we may have morning watch in our room in the morning. In our morning watch we may touch the Lord’s presence in our spirit. This experience may be very sweet and joyful. However, when we come out from our room, we may find one of our family members doing something improper. As a result, our emotion is stirred up, and we lose our temper immediately. In the morning when we pray in our room, we touch the Lord and are in our spirit. However, right after we finish praying, our emotion is stirred up, and we become joyful or angry, sorrowful or delighted. From this we see that there is no Spirit in our emotion. The will is also the same. When we pray, we have enjoyment in our spirit. However, after we finish praying, our ideas and choices immediately come out, and no one can change them. This indicates that the Spirit is not in our will. Therefore, we see that as a result of our salvation we have the Lord’s Spirit and the Lord’s life in our spirit, but we may not yet have the Spirit in our mind, emotion, and will. At the time of our salvation, our whole outer being still has no Spirit. Thus, when people touch us, they may not sense that we are sinful or that we are doing something wrong, but they also may not sense that we have God or the taste of the Lord. Although we have been saved and have the Lord’s Spirit and the Lord’s life in our spirit, the Lord’s Spirit may not yet have permeated and expanded into our mind, emotion, and will.
If a Christian has the proper growth in life, when you touch his thoughts, you will sense the taste of the Lord in it; when you touch his likes or even his dislikes, you will sense the taste of the Lord; and if you watch the way he decides and chooses, you will also sense the taste of the Lord. Why is this? It is because he allows the Lord’s Spirit and the Lord’s life to permeate from his spirit into his mind, emotion, and will. That is, he allows the Lord’s life to spread and expand in him and also allows the Lord’s life in him to grow step by step and to mature little by little. In the same way, the more the fruit on a tree grows, the more it matures. One day the Lord’s Spirit and life will permeate our whole being completely, causing our whole being to be filled with the Lord and to have the taste of the Lord in full. When this happens, we will be mature believers. Not only will we be blameless in our daily walk, but when others touch us, they will be able to sense the taste of the Lord in our thoughts, preferences, and ideas. This will be the case because the Lord’s Spirit and life will have spread from our spirit to every part of our soul.