The Operation of the Spiritual Man
The Operation Of The Spiritual Man
We cannot readily realize what a transformation is going to come to mankind when he realizes this fact. When man subjects that great God-man of the heart to the degradations of the desires of the outer fleshly man, how that inner man must groan.
I am sure if the Spirit of God would dispel the mist obstructing our vision and quicken our consciousness so that we moved into the realization of that one fact, life would be transformed. God never intended that the outer man of the flesh should be the governor of the great ' man of the soul or spirit.
One can readily see that because of the finer nature, the finer construction, the finer heavenly material of which spirit is constituted, the spiritual man has a larger range of action than the physical man. Just as the outer man receives by impression, through contact, the things that occur about him’ and as these are recorded in the soul, so the greater range of action of the spirit—through the spiritual senses—permits man to touch God Himself. He is able to touch the best things in the universe and bring them back in consciousness to the soul. The apostle Paul was
The operation of the spiritual man is identical to the operation of the physical man. Both record their facts in the soul consciousness. Consequently, when we become aware of certain things in the spirit that our spirit has recognized, it is because the spirit has recorded that consciousness of its operation in the soul. Therefore, we know it.
The subject of the God-man reduces itself largely to this: Instead of man’s living in obedience to the things he receives from the fibratory action of the outer man, he realizes there is a larger life and activity within, and he begins to realize some of its powers and the duty that he owes to the inner man, that man of the heart, that God-man within. And realizing this, he refuses to permit the animal to control the spirit.
There is no individual on earth but that m some degree knows the operation of the Spirit of God. I do not believe a human being lives who has no tin some degree at some time been conscious of the Spirit of God and possibly heard the voice of the Spirit or realized the operation of the Spirit upon his heart. As John said,
In my congregation in South Africa there was a miner who lived a vile, sinful life. One day as he was working at the mine operating his drilling machine, he became aware of an inner voice speaking to him, a voice in his spirit which said, “Go down to the stope” (which was hundreds of feet down), “and call the Austrian out. An Austrian was working all alone in one of the stopes*.
In my congregation in South Africa there was a miner who lived a vile, sinful life. One day as he was working at the mine operating his drilling machine, he became aware of an inner voice speaking to him, a voice in his spirit which said, “Go down to the stope” (which was hundreds of feet down), “and call the Austrian out. An Austrian was working all alone in one of the stopes*.
*(An excavation in the form of steps made by the mining of ore from steeply inclined or vertical veins)
In telling me about it he said, “Brother Lake, I was so busy I thought perhaps it was some freak of my mind, and I went on with my work. A little while after that the voice spoke again, and this time with more authority: ‘Go down to the stope and call the Austrian out.’ I was still very busy, and I did not obey, thinking possibly it was my imagination.” He went on with his work until that voice spoke within him the third time in an extremely urgent manner. He said, “I knew it was the voice of the Spirit of God. I dropped everything and went to the stope. As I looked down I could see the light of a candle, sol took my candle and made a motion for him to come up. When he arrived I was not able to explain why I had called him up. But as I waited, hardly knowing what to say, the whole stope suddenly fell in.”
Who was it that spoke? Who possessed the foreknowledge? Whence came the voice? It was the universal mind of God.
Even though that miner was not a Christian, and although he was not obedient to the law of God or to the law of his own being—a man who lived largely in the lusts of the flesh—yet his spirit had a conscious contact with God that day.
Perhaps you too have had this same experience. Before you were a Christian and had become obedient to the mind and will of God, was there a time in your life when the Spirit of God began to , deal with you, and for the first time you were conscious that your life was not in harmony with God?