The Spiritual Man

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The Dangers of Spiritual Life
Nothing Is More Vital to the Christian life than to
walk daily after the spirit. It is this that maintains the
Christian in a constant spiritual state, delivers him from
the power of the flesh, assists him to obey God’s will
always, and shields him from the assault of Satan. Now
that we understand the operations of our spirit, we must immediately
walk by it. This is a moment by moment affair from which there can
be no relaxing. In these days we must be keenly alert to the peril of
receiving the teaching of the Holy Spirit while subsequently rejecting
His leading. On this very point have many saints stumbled and fallen.
To acquire teaching alone is not sufficient; we must also accept the
leading. We should not be content with just spiritual knowledge but
treasure as well the walk after the spirit. Often we hear people drop
the words, “the way of the cross”; but what is this way after all? It is
in reality nothing else but walking by the spirit, since to walk in that
fashion necessitates the committing of our ideas, wishes and thoughts
to death. Exclusively following the spirit’s intuition and revelation
demands our bearing the cross daily.
All spiritual believers know something of the operation of the
spirit. Their experience of it, however, is often sporadic because they
have not fully understood all the laws which govern its functioning.
But with their intuition well-developed they could walk steadily after
the spirit without any interference from the outside (note: all that is
outside the spirit is considered the outside realm). But not having
assimilated the laws of the spirit, they interpret life in the spirit as
oscillatory, devoid of rule, and arduous to practice. Many are
determined to heed God’s will and to follow the leading of the Holy
Spirit, but they lack a positive forward-propelling heart because they
are not sure if the guidance of their intuition is wholly dependable.
They have yet to learn to understand the indication of their intuition
as to whether to advance or to stay. They are additionally igornant of