The Believer’s Mistake 603
Christ in the spirit cannot denote effacement. Man as a person must
exist; his will must continue: only his natural life must die. This is
the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.
The consequences of a misconception of the truth such as this are
(1) the believer himself ceases to be active; (2) God cannot use him
because he has violated His operating principle; therefore (3) the evil
spirits seize the opportunity to invade him since he unwittingly has
fulfilled the prerequisites for their working. Due to his
misinterpretation of the truth, and his practicing of death, he becomes
a tool of the enemy who has disguised himself as God. Alas and
alack, this misapprehension of the teaching connected with Galatians
2 has come to be in many cases the prelude to deception.
After such a “death” as this the individual is deprived of any
feeling. He cannot feel for himself, nor can he feel for others. He
gives those around him the impression of being like iron and stone,
utterly devoid of feeling. He does not sense the suffering in others
nor is he sensitive to how much pain he has given people himself. He
has no ability to sense, to distinguish or to discern things within or
without. This person is totally unaware of his own manner, attitude,
and action. He speaks and acts without exercising his will and knows
not from whence his words, thoughts and feelings originate. Without
having made any decision through his own volition these words and
feelings nonetheless flow like a river. All his actions are mechanical;
no knowledge has he of their sources; he is only spurred on by an
alien power. Strange to say, however, unconscious of self as he is,
yet is he most sensitive to the treatment accorded him by others. He
tends to misunderstand and hence to suffer. In any case, this
“unconsciousness” forms both the condition and the consequence of
the enemy’s penetration. By. it the evil spirits are enabled to work, to
attack, to suggest, to think, to press or to suppress without the
slightest resistance from the believer who is completely unaware of
anything.