Laws and Functions of Spirit & Soul

Knowing Gods Will

God’s guidance does not always come to us directly; it is sometimes indirect. In direct guidance the Spirit of God moves in our spirit and so enables us to know His will. If our mind is attentive to the movement in the spirit we shall easily understand the will of God. But in the various affairs of life God does not necessarily tell us many things directly. There may be many needs of which we as men are aware. What should we do about these conscious needs? We may be invited to work somewhere or something else may suddenly happen. Such matters as these obviously are not sponsored directly by our spirit, for they come to us from other people. Our mind sees the urgency of solving these problems, yet our spirit is unresponsive. How may we experience the guidance of God in such a situation? Well, when we encounter something of this kind, we must with our mind ask God to lead us in the spirit. By so doing we are experiencing the indirect guidance of God. This is the moment the mind must assist the spirit. When one notices his spirit is inactive he should exercise his mind. It is not necessary for it to assist if the spirit is exuding its thought incessantly: only as the spirit remains silent must the mind fill the gap for it.

In such circumstances the believer should exercise his mind by pondering this unsolved matter before God. Although such prayer and consideration emerge from his mind, before long his spirit will collaborate in the prayer and consideration. His spirit which he did not sense before he now begins to sense, and soon the Holy Spirit will be found leading him in his spirit. We should never sit back because of a lack of early movement therein. Rather should we use the mind to “scoop up” our spirit and activate it to help us know whether or not this matter is of God.

The Principle Governing the Activity of the Spirit

In our spiritual experience the operation of the mind is indispensable. Unlike the ocean tide, the spirit is not filled by spontaneous comings and goings. For it to be filled we must comply with the conditions for its filling. This is where the mind assumes its responsibility: to set in motion what the spirit will soon carry forward by itself. If we endlessly wait for the permeation of the spirit we shall be disappointed. On the other hand we should not too highly esteem the work of the mind. By this time ...

Timeless Unawares or 'Unconscious' Soul Sleep

Let us prove the altar in the 5th seal is not in Heaven to prove the point. The altar here must be the altar of sacrifices—for the following reasons.

(1) According to Old Testament typology, no one should go up to the altar with his nakedness uncovered (Ex. 20.26). This signifies that no naked body can meet God. Anyone who does not have a resurrection body is considered naked, and therefore he cannot appear before God. For this reason, 2 Corinthians 5.4 speaks about being “clothed upon” with a new body. (After a person is dead, his soul does not go to God right away.) Without resurrection, no one can stand beside the golden altar of incense.

"Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon" (Ex. 20.26) - You can't go before the High Priest naked.

(2) When the Bible speaks of altar, it always refers to the altar of sacrifice. Special descriptive words such as “golden”, “incense”, and so forth are used to refer to the golden altar of incense so as to distinguish it from the altar standing in the outer court.

(3) The blood of all the sacrifices flows down underneath the altar (Ex. 29.12; Lev. 4.7, 5.9).

(4) There is life in the blood, and this word “life” in the original Hebrew is the word “soul” (Lev. 17.11 mg., 17.14). “Underneath the altar” means underneath the earth. The altar typifies the cross; beneath the cross is the earth. Hence underneath the altar here refers to Paradise in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12.40). We notice the following clause in Acts 2.27: “because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades”; moreover, in Numbers 16.32 it is stated that “the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods” (Not only may no man appear before God without a body, neither may he enter the lake of fire without a body.).

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12.40). How can men spend less time in Hades than Jesus did?

How can Jesus judge you at His return if you go to Heaven the moment you die? Judgment-Seat comes before you enter Heaven. When your spirit is give back to God when ...

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As the soul has its senses, so too has the spirit. The spirit is intimately related to the soul and yet is wholly unlike it. The soul possesses various senses; but a spiritual man is able to detect another set of senses—lodged in the innermost part of his being—which is radically dissimilar from his set of soulical senses. There in that innermost recess he can rejoice, grieve, anticipate, love, fear, approve, condemn, decide, discern. These motions are sensed in the spirit and are quite distinct from those expressed by the soul through the body.

We can learn about the sensing of the spirit and its many-sided character from the following verses:

“The spirit indeed is willing” Matt. 26.41
“Perceiving in his spirit” Mark 2.8
“He sighed deeply in his spirit” Mark 8.12
“My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” Luke 1.47
“The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” John 4.23
“He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled” John 11.33
“When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit” John 13.21
“His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” Acts 17.16
“He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit” Acts 18.25
‘Paul purposed in the spirit” Acts 19.21 ASV
“I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem” Acts 20.22 ASV
“(Be) fervent in spirit” Rom. 12.11 ASV
“For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him” 1 Cor. 2.11
“I will sing with the spirit” 1 Cor. 14.15
“If you bless with the spirit” 1 Cor. 14.16
“I had no rest in my spirit” 2 Cor. 2.13 Darby
“We have the same spirit of faith” 2 Cor. 4.13
“A spirit of wisdom and of revelation” Eph.1.17
“Your love in spirit” Col. 1.8 literal

From these many passages we can see readily that the spirit clearly senses and that such sensing is manifold. The Bible is not telling us here how our heart senses but rather how our spirit does. And it would appear that the sensing of the spirit is as inclusive as that of the soul. The spirit like the soul has its thoughts, feelings, and desires. But how we must learn to distinguish the spiritual from the soulical! We shall come to appreciate this difference if we are matured through the ...