476 The Spiritual Man
of the power of the spirit and render them happy or sad, hot or cold,
laughing or crying and which supply them with visions, dreams,
voices, fires and even inexpressible wonderful sensations—as most
definitely bestowed by the Holy Spirit, and thus represent the highest
attainment of a Christian. They are unable to recognize that these are
but the works of the evil spirit. They would never dream that the evil
spirit as well as the Holy Spirit could perform such work Totally
ignorant are they of the fact that the Holy Spirit operates in the spirit
of men. Whatever induces feeling to the body proceeds nine out of
ten times from the evil spirit. Why have so many fallen into this
snare? Simply because they do not live in the spirit but love to live in
their feeling! They accordingly provide the wicked power
opportunity to play his tricks. Christians must learn to deny their
sensational life or else they shall give ground to the enemy to deceive
them.
Let us seriously warn every one of God’s children to take note of
their bodily feeling. We should never allow any spirit to create any
feeling in our body against our will. We should resist each of these
outward bodily feelings. We should not believe in any of these
physical sensations. Rather than follow them we should forbid them,
for they constitute the enemy’s initial deception. We ought solely to
follow intuition in the depths of our beings.
A careful observation of a Christian s life of feeling can uncover
an underlying principle in such a life—which is none other than “for
the sake of self.” Why is joyous sensation so sought after? For the
sake of self. Why is barrenness so abhorred? Again for self’s sake.
Why seek bodily feelings? For self. Why crave supernatural
experiences. Also for self. on may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to
behold how full of self is a so-called “spiritual” life of feeling! May
the Lord show us that when we are filled with joyous emotions our
life is still centered on self. It is the love of self-pleasure! The reality
or falsity of spiritual life can be gauged by the way we treat self.