A very long excerpt
from 'The Spiritual Man' by Watchman Nee.
Tomorrow we will start studying it bit by bit as the Spirit leads, all
by the grace of God, through our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.
*******
'We have just seen
how the High Priest operates if we accept the cross. We shall consider next the
practical side; that is, how we may arrive at the experience of having the Lord
Jesus divide our soul and spirit.
(1) Know the necessity of having the spirit and
soul divided. Without this knowledge no such request will be made. Christians
ought to petition the Lord to show them the abhorrence of a mixed
spirit-and-soul life and also the reality of that deeper walk in God which is
wholly spirit and uninterrupted by the soul. They should understand that a
mixed life is a frustrated life.
(2) Ask for the separation of soul and spirit.
After knowing, there must be a genuinely earnest desire in the heart, a
requesting that this mingled soul and spirit be cut apart. Just here the
question rests with the human will. Should believers prefer to enjoy what they
themselves consider the best life and not desire to have their soul and spirit
divided, God will respect their personal rights and not force them into such
experience.
(3) Yield specifically. If believers definitely
desire the experience of having their soul and spirit separated, they must
consign themselves to the altar of the cross in a specific manner. They must be
willing to accept totally every consequence of the operation of the cross and
be conformed to the death of the Lord. Before they encounter the cleaving of
soul and spirit believers need to bend their will continuously and incessantly
towards God and actively choose to have this cleavage. And as the High Priest
accomplishes this division in them their heart attitude should be that He
should not stay His hand.
(4) Stand on Romans 6.11. God’s children need to
watch lest in seeking to experience the separation of soul and spirit they fall
back into sin. Remember that this separating is built upon their having died to
sin. Hence they should maintain daily the attitude of Romans 6.11, considering
themselves verily dead to sin. Additionally, they should stand on Romans 6.12
and not permit sin to reign in their mortal bodies. This attitude will deprive
their natural life any opportunity to sin through the body.
(5) Pray and
study the Bible. Christians ought to search the Bible with prayer and
meditation. They should let God’s Word penetrate thoroughly into their souls so
as to enable their natural life to be purified. If they actually do what God
says, their soul life shall not be able to continue its free activity. This is
the meaning of 1 Peter 1.22: “having purified your souls by your obedience to
the truth.”
(6) Daily bear the cross. Because the Lord desires
to sever our spirit and soul He arranges crosses in our everyday affairs for us
to bear. To take up the cross daily, to deny self at all times, to make no
provision for the flesh—not even for a moment, and to be shown constantly by
the Holy Spirit what are the activities of the soul in our lives: this is
spiritual life. Through faithful obedience we shall be led to encounter the
dividing of soul and spirit so that we may experience a pure spiritual walk.
(7) Live
according to the spirit. This is a condition not only for our preservation but
also for a distinct cleavage between spirit and soul. We must seek to walk by
our spirit in all respects, distinguishing what is of the spirit and what is of
the soul and resolving as well to follow the former while rejecting the latter.
Learn to recognize the working of the spirit and follow it.
These are the conditions which we on our side
must fulfill. The Holy Spirit requires our cooperation. The Lord will not be
able to do His part should we fail to do ours. But were we to discharge our
responsibility, our High Priest would tear apart our spirit and soul with the
sharp Sword of His Spirit in the power of His cross.
Everything which
belongs to emotion, sensation, mind and natural energy would be separated one
after another from the spirit so as to leave no trace of fusion.
To lie on the altar
is what we must do, but to divide the soul from the spirit with the well-honed
knife is what our High Priest undertakes. If we truly commit ourselves to the
cross our High Priest shall not fail to execute His ministry in separating our
spirit and soul. We need not worry about His part. Upon seeing we have
fulfilled the requirements for His working He shall part our spirit and soul at
the appropriate time thereafter. Those who have apprehended the danger of a
mixture of these two organs cannot but seek deliverance. Open though the road
is to deliverance, it nevertheless is not without its difficulties. Believers
must persevere in prayer that they may see clearly their own pitiful state and
understand the indwelling, working, and demands of the Holy Spirit. They need
to know the mystery and reality of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. May
they honor such holy presence; may they be careful not to grieve Him; may they
know that, aside from sin, what grieves Him the most as well as what harms
themselves the deepest is to walk and labor according to their own life. The
first and original sin of man was to seek what is good, wise and intellectual
according to his own idea. God’s children today often make the same mistake.
They should realize that since they have believed in the Lord and have the Holy
Spirit indwelling them, they ought to give the Spirit complete authority over
their souls. Do we think because we have prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to
reveal His mind and to work in us, that all shall accordingly be done? That
assumption is not the truth; for unless we deliver to death specifically and
daily our natural life, together with its power, wisdom, self, and sensation
and unless we equally desire honestly in our mind and will to obey and rely
upon the Holy Spirit, we shall not see Him actually performing the work. The
Lord’s people should understand that it is the Word of God which parts their
soul and spirit. The Lord Jesus is Himself the living Word of God, so He Himself
effects the division. Are we disposed to let His life and accomplished work
stand between our soul and spirit? Are we ready to have His life so fill our
spirit that the soul life is immobilized? The Bible is God’s written Word. The
Lord Jesus uses the teaching of the Bible to separate our soul and spirit. Are
we willing to follow the truth? Are we ready to do what the Scriptures teach?
Can we obey the Lord in accordance with the teaching of Scripture without
putting in our opinion as well? Do we consider the authority of the Bible as
sufficient without seeking human help in our obedience? We must obey the Lord
and everything He teaches us in His Word if we would desire to enter upon a
true spiritual path. This is the Sword which is operative to the cleaving of
our soul and spirit. '
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