392 The Spiritual Man
is thereby denied its tranquillity. Because of his pursuit of creaturely
activities he may develop an “unruly spirit.” Too much laughter as
well as many other actions may produce an unmanageable spirit.
Protracted war with the enemy can provoke the spirit to become
overly active. The saint may find his spirit overstretched to the point
where it is powerless to stop. Or the enemy may inject strange joy or
other feelings into him to entice his inner man to move beyond the
acceptable and right counsel of his mind or will. Whenever anyone is
incompetent to guard his spirit, then is he open inevitably to defeat.
The spirit on other occasions neither sinks too low nor is elevated
too high but is simply defiled. The defilement may be due to its
attitude of hardness or unyieldedness; or to sins like pride, jealousy
and others; or to the mixing in with the spirit of such soulical
functions as natural affection, feeling, thought, and so on. The spirit
needs to be purified from its every defilement (2 Cor. 7.1; 1 John
1.9).
If a Christian wishes to walk after the spirit he has to discern
exactly what condition his own is in, whether it is quietly occupying
its proper place, has fallen too low, is risen too high, or is simply
defiled. He must learn, if required, how to uplift his oppressed spirit
so that it measures up to the standard of the Holy Spirit, how to
exercise his will to prevent his spirit from becoming overly active or
to restore it to its normalcy if it is too active, and how to cleanse his
defiled spirit that it may work together with God once again.