The feeling of the spirit is the feeling of life. This life is not our natural life, but the life of God. Because the spirit is life and life is the spirit, the feeling of the spirit is the feeling of life. With all kinds of life, there is the feeling. A higher life has a higher feeling, and a lower life has a lower feeling. A strong life has a strong feeling, and a weak life has a weak feeling. The life of God within us is the Spirit, and this Spirit is our life. This life is the highest life and therefore surely has the most feeling. As saved ones we should be filled with all kinds of spiritual feeling. We should not be void of feeling.
The feeling of the spirit stems from the moving of the Spirit within us. This moving is like the anointing of an ointment. When you put a face cream on your face, your face feels it. Our feeling of the spirit likewise stems from the moving of the Spirit within us. This is what is spoken of in Philippians 2:13 when it says that God is operating in us. Moreover, His operation is a law; it is the operation of the law of life within us. This law belongs to the life and is a natural function of the life. As long as conditions meet the requirements of the law, the law automatically operates. When this law of life operates within us, it gives us the feeling of the spirit.
The feeling of the spirit is liveliest, keenest, and strongest when we pray. This is like our blood circulation, which accelerates when we run. When we pray and have fellowship with the Lord, the operation of the Spirit within increases so that the feeling of the spirit within becomes keener.
The feeling of the spirit is delicate, meek, and calm. If we want to sense the spirit’s feeling, we have to learn to be calm. If you are of a quick temper, you will not be able to sense the feeling of the spirit. The more delicate, meek, and calm you are, the clearer your feeling of the spirit becomes.
The feeling of the spirit is life and peace as opposed to death and uneasiness. Life includes satisfaction, fulfillment, strength, livingness, and freshness. These are all phenomena of life. Death includes emptiness, dissatisfaction, weakness, depression, and oldness. The general phenomenon of life is peace, and the general phenomenon of death is uneasiness. If you are satisfied, full, strong, living, and fresh, you will surely feel at ease and peaceful. If you are dissatisfied, weak, depressed, and old, you will certainly feel uneasy. These phenomena within us produce a feeling which lets us know whether or not we are in the spirit. If we are in the spirit, we will have life and peace. If we are not in the spirit, but in the flesh, we will have death and uneasiness.
The feeling of the spirit needs to be matched by a strong, sober mind. If you want to be strong in your spirit, you must have a strong will. And if you want to have a sober spirit, you must have a sober mind. When your will is strong and your mind is sober, your spirit will be calm. If you are an indecisive person, like a ship without a rudder drifting without direction according to the wind, your feeling of the spirit will not be accurate. If you wander all the time in your imagination, your mind will not be sober and your feeling of the spirit will not be keen. You will be like a piece of glass which, though it should be transparent, has lost its transparency because all kinds of paint have been put upon it. Therefore, the feeling of the spirit needs a strong and sober mind.