452 The Spiritual Man
accepts the demand of the cross in consigning his soulish emotion to
death that he may live utterly for the Lord, he will discover
experientially how his emotion pleads and maneuvers for a little
ground of activity. For this very reason numerous Christians are
powerless to walk totally after the Lord. How many Christians, for
example, are able to engage in prayer warfare for a whole day
without reserving some period for recreation, for refreshing their
emotion? It is difficult for us to live in the spirit for an entire day. We
always set aside for ourselves some time to converse with people in
order to relieve our emotion. Only when we are shut in by God—
seeing neither man nor sky, living in the spirit and serving Him
before the throne—do we begin to appreciate how much emotion
demands of us, how imperfectly we have died to it, and how much
we yet live by it.
Desire for haste is another symptom of the emotional Christian.
One who moves by his natural feeling does not know how to wait on
God nor is he acquainted with the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Emotion is usually hasty. A Christian emotionally excited acts
hastily. It is extremely hard for him to wait on the Lord, to know the
will of God, and to walk step by step in that will. Indeed, the Lord’s
people are incapable of following the spirit unless their emotion is
truly yielded to the cross. Let us remember that out of a hundred
impulsive actions scarcely one is in the will of God.
Judging by the time we need to pray, to prepare, to wait, and to be
filled again with the power of the Holy Spirit, can we really be
faultless if we move impulsively? Because He knows the impetuosity
of our flesh God frequently uses our fellow-workers, brethren,
family, circumstances, and other material factors to wear us out. He
wants our hastiness to die so that He can work for us. God never
performs anything hurriedly; consequently He will not entrust His
power to the impatient. He who wishes to act impulsively must
depend upon his own strength. Haste clearly is the work of the flesh.
Since God does not desire anyone to walk after the flesh, the