486 The Spiritual Man
requires a will that is entirely yielded to God’s to always choose
what the spirit desires). In the early stage of their Christian
experience they heard how other saints enjoyed unutterable bliss
during obedience or suffering. They ardently admired such a life, so
they too offered themselves exclusively to the Lord with the hope of
possessing this “higher” life. In truth, following their consecration
they did experience time and again the Lord’s intimacy and love,
which prompted them to conclude that their hope had been realized.
But far too soon did these wonderful experiences become past
history.
Because they are unaware that the expression of true spiritual life
issues not from feeling but from the will many suffer endless pains,
for these believe they have lost their spiritual life when no happy
sensation is felt. Such ones, at a time of low feeling, need to ascertain
whether their original heart of consecration has been changed or
whether they still harbor the desire to do God’s will. Are they yet
disposed to suffer for Him? Is there any change in their readiness to
do anything or go anywhere for God? If these have not been altered,
then their spiritual life has not receded. But if these have changed,
their life in the spirit has indeed receded.
Just as one’s retrogression is not due to any loss of joy but to the
weakening of his will in obedience to God, so his progress is not
because he possesses many delightful feelings now which he
previously did not, but because of a deeper union of his will with
God. It is this which renders him more inclined to follow God’s will,
more amenable to His desires. The touchstone of genuine spiritual
life is how much one’s volition is united with God’s; good or bad
sensation, happy or sad feeling does not in the slightest serve as an
indicator. If one is willing, however dry he may feel, to be faithful to
God even to death, his spiritual course becomes the noblest.
Spirituality is measured by our volition because it unfolds our
undisguised condition. When our choices and decisions are yielded
to God we may safely say we have yielded to God and no longer act