386 The Spiritual Man
and if a call to pray, pray we will. Let us seek how to work together
with God. Let the old burden be discharged and the new one come in.
(6) Ebbing of the SpiritGod’s life and power in our spirit can recede like a tide. We
recognize that anyone soulish usually deems his spiritual life to be at
high tide when he feels the presence of God; but if he feels low and
dry, he is at ebb tide. These are of course but feelings; they do not
represent the reality of spiritual life.
Nevertheless, spiritual life does encounter a time of decline,
though it is quite unlike any feeling of the soul. After one is filled
with the Holy Spirit he can proceed quite well for a period, and then
gradually, not suddenly, his spiritual life subsides. The difference
between a sensuous decline and a spiritual decline lies here: the
former is usually abrupt, whereas the latter is gradual. A believer
may become conscious that the life and power of God which he once
received is gradually ebbing. This may cause him to lose the joy,
peace and power which his spirit ought to sustain. Day by day he
grows weaker. At this time he seems to lose his taste for communion
with God: his Bible reading becomes meaningless: rarely, if at all, is
his heart touched by any message or special verse. Moreover, his
prayer turns dry and dreary as if there is neither sense nor word; and
his witnessing appears to be forced and reluctant, not overflowing as
before. In other words, life is no longer as vibrant, strong, buoyant or
joyous as before. Everything seems to have receded.
A tide has its ebb and flow. Can God’s life and power in our spirit
likewise be characterized by such phenomena? By no means! God’s
life knows no such ebb, because it is forever flowing. It does not rise
and fall as the ocean tide, but is like a river ever flowing with living
water (John 7.38). God’s life in us is not at all like the tide which
must ebb at a certain hour, because the source of our inner life is in
God with Whom there is “no variation or shadow due to change’