628 The Spiritual Man
denying what once was given. Every past consideration, counsel, and
permission must be overthrown; even past prayers and answers must
be denied.
Without a doubt every one of these dealings runs directly against
the evil spirits. Formerly an intimate association had been formed
with these spirits through mistaking them for the Holy Spirit;
presently, with the newly added knowledge, all which was yielded to
them in ignorance must be retrieved. Just as each ground one after
another was ceded, so now all must be reclaimed specifically. The
greatest hindrance to complete liberty is the believer’s unwillingness
to recover all territory carefully: point by point, one after another. He
tends to exercise his will in a general, vague and inclusive way to
retake all ground. Such general opposition merely indicates the
correctness of the believer’s attitude. To be set free he must restore
everything specifically. This may seem laborious but if he genuinely
wills to be released and prays for God’s light, the Holy Spirit
gradually shall reveal the past to him. By resisting them one by one,
all eventually shall be dissolved. By patiently pressing forward he
shall experience deliverance in one area after another. He is on his
way to freedom. To resist in a general way shows we do really
oppose the evil spirits; but only resisting in specific fashion can force
them to desert the ground they occupy.
Step by step the will of the Christian had descended downhill till
it became totally passive. Now he must reverse the process and step
by step ascend to freedom. He must retrace all the stages by which he
descended, only this time his direction will be upward. Previously he
was deceived into passivity by degrees; he now needs to reactivate
his will in the same manner. All his earlier passivity must be restored
one by one. Each movement upward bespeaks some regaining of
ground. Whatever was most recently lost to the evil spirits is usually
the first ground to be recovered, just as in climbing stairs we ascend
the last step of our descent first.