398 The Spiritual Man
mind, however, is fixed upon the immediate. It will require some
time before our mind is ready to consider these all-embracing issues
and begin to pray the prayer of the Holy Spirit. Yet as soon as our
spirit joins in, we can and must discharge all the burdens which it has
concerning this particular matter. We ought to pray carefully and
thoroughly over each and every facet of this matter till our spirit is
lightened of its burden. Only thereafter can we turn to intercede for
other concerns.
This is indeed an important principle in our spiritual life.
Whenever God gives us new prayers they usually are received in our
spirit, but afterwards we cannot expect God to refill our spirit with
those prayers. Instead, we should exercise our mind to pray
continuously over them until our spirit once more regains its burdens.
Knowing Gods WillGod’s guidance does not always come to us directly; it is
sometimes indirect. In direct guidance the Spirit of God moves in our
spirit and so enables us to know His will. If our mind is attentive to
the movement in the spirit we shall easily understand the will of God.
But in the various affairs of life God does not necessarily tell us
many things directly. There may be many needs of which we as men
are aware. What should we do about these conscious needs? We may
be invited to work somewhere or something else may suddenly
happen. Such matters as these obviously are not sponsored directly
by our spirit, for they come to us from other people. Our mind sees
the urgency of solving these problems, yet our spirit is unresponsive.
How may we experience the guidance of God in such a situation?
Well, when we encounter something of this kind, we must with our
mind ask God to lead us in the spirit. By so doing we are
experiencing the indirect guidance of God. This is the moment the
mind must assist the spirit. When one notices his spirit is inactive he
should exercise his mind. It is not necessary for it to assist if the