414 The Spiritual Man
For anyone to walk in a spiritual manner it will be necessary for
him to keep his spirit holy at all times. An unholy spirit leads people
into error. Inordinate thought towards men or things, assessing the
evil of others, a lack of love, loquacity, sharp criticism, self-
righteousness, refusing entreaty, jealousy, self-pride, and so forth—
all these can defile the spirit. An unholy spirit cannot be fresh and
new.
In our pursuit of spiritual life we must not overlook any sin,
because sin inflicts more harm upon us than does anything else. Even
though we already have learned how to be delivered from sin and
how to walk by the spirit, we nevertheless must guard against
unknowingly returning to the old sinful ways. For such a return
renders a walk after the spirit utterly impossible. The child of God
therefore needs to maintain an attitude of death towards sin lest it
overcome him and poison his spirit. Without holiness no one can see
the Lord (Heb.12.14).
A Strong Spirit
“Become strong in spirit” (Luke 1.80).Our spirit is capable of growth and should increase gradually in
strength. This is indispensable to spiritual life. How often we sense
our spirit is not strong enough to control our soul and body,
especially the moment the soul is stimulated or the body is weak.
Sometimes in helping others we notice how heavily weighed down
they are in their spirit, yet ours lacks the power to release them. Or
when battling with the enemy we discover our spiritual strength is
inadequate to wrestle long enough with the enemy until we win.
Numberless are those occasions when we feel the spirit losing its
grip; we have to force ourselves to proceed in life and in work. How
we long for a more robust inner man!