The Laws of the Spirit 387
(James 1.17). Hence the life in our spirit should flow like a river—
incessantly and unto overflowing.
Wherefore if anyone becomes aware that his life is receding, he
should understand that life does not subside, it simply ceases to flow.
He should know as well that such ebbing is totally unnecessary.
Never be so deceived by Satan as to consider it impossible for one
who is still in the body to be filled permanently with the life of God.
His life in us is like a river of living water. If it is not hindered it
shall flow uninterruptedly. A Christian can experience a life forever
flowing; an ebb tide is not only unnecessary but abnormal as well.
The question in hand is accordingly not how we may induce
spiritual life to rise up after it has fallen; rather, it is how we may get
it to flow. The fountain of life remains within the believer, though it
is now blocked. Nothing is wrong with the inlet; it is the outlet which
is obstructed. The water of life does not spring forth because the flow
has no way through. Were the outlet cleared, the water of life would
flow unceasingly. What a child of God therefore needs is not more
life but more flow of life.
Immediately upon sensing a waning in his spiritual life, a child of
God automatically should realize an obstruction must exist
somewhere. Satan will accuse you of having retrogressed spiritually;
other people will judge you as having lost power; and you yourself
will imagine you must have committed some grave sin. These may
be true, but they do not form the whole truth. Actually, such a
situation is mostly, though not entirely, created because of our not
knowing how to cooperate with God in fulfilling His conditions for
the certainty of a ceaseless flow. Foolishness is a prime factor. Hence
a person should immediately pray and meditate over, and test and
search out the cause for, such an ebbing. He should wait upon God,
asking His Spirit to reveal the reason. In the meantime, he should try
to unearth where he has failed to fulfill the condition for the steady
flow of life.