380 The Spiritual Man
learn how to guard their spirit from being goaded by the enemy.
They should know also how to preserve it in sweetness and
tenderness.
In ordinary times the Lord’s people should early take the shield of
faith which quenches all the flaming darts of the evil one. This
implies that we should swiftly exercise living faith to look for God’s
protection and to withstand the enemy’s attack. Faith is our shield,
not our extractor: faith is a weapon for quenching the flaming darts,
not for pulling them out afterwards. But should anyone be hit by a
flaming dart, he at once must eliminate the cause of the dart. He
should maintain an attitude of resistance, immediately denying
whatever comes from Satan and praying for cleansing.
(4) Sinking of the SpiritThe spirit sinking or being submerged is largely due to a turning
in on oneself. It may be induced by a possessiveness over all the
experiences one has had or by an intrusion of the power of darkness
or by a self-centeredness in prayer and worship. When anyone’s
spirit is tilted inward instead of outward the power of God is at once
severed and the spirit will soon be surrounded by the soul.
Sometimes this submerging of the spirit in the soul is precipitated
by the deceit of the evil foe who supplies the person with physical
sensations and various wonderful joyful experiences. He does not
perceive that they originate with the evil spirit: he instead construes
them to be from God: and thus he unknowingly comes to dwell in a
sensuous world where his spirit is drowned in the soul.
Believers may be additionally deceived—and their spirit
accordingly descend into the soul—when they do not understand the
position of Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells the child of God to
manifest the enthroned Christ to him. The books of Acts, Ephesians,
and Hebrews speak very plainly on the position of Christ in the