284 The Spiritual Man
Spirit and the evil spirit. While they are experiencing a baptism in
the spirit they consider all supernatural experiences to be baptism in
the Holy Spirit. Truly they have been baptized in the spirit, but the
searching question is, in what spirit have they been baptized—in the
Holy one or in the evil one? Both of these may be viewed as
“baptized in the spirit.” Not recognizing that the Holy Spirit requires
their spirit’s cooperation and that He never does violence to their
personality, many saints allow their inner man to descend into
passivity and to permit some outside force to burn, twist, or
overthrow them. They, in a word, have been baptized in the evil
spirit.
Some Christians genuinely have been baptized in the Holy Spirit,
yet being unable to distinguish between spirit and soul they are
deceived afterwards. Because of their special experience, they
maintain that now that the Holy Spirit is in full control they should
not take any active step but remain completely passive. And so their
inner man is submerged in total inertia. Satan begins to feed them
many excessive pleasant sensations and numerous visions, dreams,
and supernatural experiences too. They receive them all as from the
Holy Spirit, not realizing that their inert spirit like a magnet draws in
these counterfeit experiences. Had they known how to distinguish the
sensational and the supernatural from the spiritual, these believers
would have examined those experiences. Now, however, because of
a lack of discernment combined with a passive spirit, they settle
deeper and deeper into the enemy’s deception.
As the believer’s spirit grows increasingly quiescent, his
conscience of course follows suit. Once his conscience is rendered
passive, he next expects to be led directly by the Holy Spirit, either
by voice or by Scripture verse. He concludes that He no longer will
lead him by his conscience or by decisions emanating from his
intuition; instead he will be led in the highest way. The Holy Spirit,
he now assumes, will speak either directly to him or indirectly
through some Bible verses. By ceasing to employ his conscience and