382 The Spiritual Man
condition is permitted to last for very long the believer has fallen
terribly indeed. He may perhaps be possessed by the evil spirit.
Everything therefore which is capable of impairing spiritual
consciousness must be denied. We must shun wild laughter, bitter
crying, and every other extreme outburst of physical emotion. The
body should be kept in perfect calm. We must reject inordinate
supernatural or natural sensations, for these propel the mind to follow
the body and not the spirit. Never allow anything to hinder us from
understanding the small still throb of the spirit.
Because the soul—when the spirit begins to sink—surrounds it
and reduces it to servitude, the child of God must learn how to keep
his spirit continuously outgoing, never permitting it to stagnate. For
unless his spirit sallies forth to attack Satan, Satan unquestionably
will attack his spirit and cause it to sink. Only as our spirit is flowing
out is the Holy Spirit equally able to flow out His life. The moment
anyone turns in on himself and sets his spirit to sinking, the torrential
flow of the divine Spirit immediately stops. He uses the believer’s
spirit as His channel for the flowing out of God’s life.
A Christian needs to determine what has caused his spirit to slump
and then must restore it to its original state. As soon as he discovers a
leak in the power of his spirit, he must try to redeem the situation at
once.
(5) Burdens of the SpiritThe burdens of the spirit differ from the weights on the spirit. The
latter proceed from Satan with the intent of crushing the believer and
making him suffer, but the former issue from God in His desire to
manifest His will to the believer so that he may cooperate with Him.
Any weight on the spirit has no other objective than to oppress; it
therefore usually serves no purpose and produces no fruit. A burden
of the spirit, on the other hand, is given by God to His child for the