(OOPS! As I was writing this posting, it was sounding familiar to me but it wasn’t until after I had finished that I realized I repeated last week’s chapter which Joan covered so well. My apologies – maybe my excuse can be “jet lag” for being disoriented! So for those of you who read chapter 23 for this week, it will now be for next week too!)
Many thanks to Sue and to Joan for filling in for me while I was in Thailand. They both did a wonderful job of not only getting the postings written and published, but of doing it with joy!
Truth is liberating, and this book is full of truth; and what I appreciate so much about the book is that it not only states true concepts, but the spirit behind the words is life-giving. It’s apparent that Tom Marshall was a man who lived these realities because of the life that comes through his writing.
We’re in the final section of the book now, looking at how living from the God-ordained source (which is the human spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit) is possible. I want to recommend another book here along these lines, and that is Watchman Nee’s Release of the Spirit. It is especially strong for understanding the life lived from the spirit rather than from the soul.
The strength of Marshall’s book related to this theme is that he recognizes how important the human soul is in walking in the Spirit. This is the realm that the Lord seems to be highlighting to His people and one which we as a Church have often bypassed in our desire to walk in the Spirit.
Our chapter for this week is chapter 22, Relating Spirit and Soul. In previous chapters the author has been emphasizing the spirit of man and God’s intention in creation that man and woman be ruled through their spirit. He pointed out that the three functions of the spirit are: the capacity to know (intuition), to obey (conscience), and to relate (communion).
In this chapter he deals with the importance of the soul and how it relates to the spirit. The three functions of the soul are the ability to reason (mind), decide (will) and feel (emotions). Quoting Marshall:
* Knowledge received in the spirit is meant to rule over the reasoning of the mind.
* The conscience is intended to direct and control the decisions of the will. * The function of communion is to rule over the emotions.
Marshall goes on to make an observation about God that is foundational in our understanding of His beautiful nature and character as He relates to humans: …although the Holy Spirit resides in the human spirit, He will go no further without the desire and consent of the human will…He will not force His way into the closed areas of our life anymore than He will force His way into the heart of the unbeliever. Dwelling within our spirit, the Spirit lives by His own law of vulnerable love.
In the rest of the chapter the author shows how the soul relates to the spirit in the area of knowing. Revelation is knowledge that reaches the human spirit; it is received intuitively and is what awakens faith. Contrary to what we often hear, faith depends on knowledge, but this is not cognitive knowledge. It is the “direct, intuitive knowledge that comes from God to our spirit. Our rational mind has difficulty with that kind of knowledge.”
Like you all, many times in my walk with God I have rationalized myself out of obedience to something that I sensed God was saying to me, because it didn’t make sense to my natural mind. More and more I’m obeying the promptings of the Spirit in my spirit, and the more I practice this (taking the risk of faith), the more I’m discerning His voice.
Marshall gives a stern warning that unbelief is not a benign weakness but the rejection of revelation knowledge and is a great barrier to the flow of the life of the Spirit in and through us. He points out that if we are to grow in receiving and operating intuitively, we must become childlike: “Unless we are willing, like children, to trust the divine knowledge we receive in our spirit, we will never understand the ways of the kingdom of God.” This is, of course, all within the boundaries of biblical revelation.
The role of the human mind is to receive the revelation knowledge from the human spirit in words. In other words, the mind puts shape and form to knowledge that has been received in the spirit. This is important for the sake of one’s own understanding of what God is doing and saying and also for the sake of communicating to others around us. And so the ongoing renewal of the mind (alignment with God’s Word) is absolutely imperative in order to be able to discern and understand the intuitions of the spirit; at the same time, I don’t believe we can properly understand the Word of God without obedience to the intuitions in our spirit. So it isn’t a linear process; while we are developing our minds according to the Word of God, we are growing in faith and trust as we obey the intuitions in our spirit – because we are never perfect in either of these realms, there’s room for mistakes, and the Body of Christ around us provides accountability and protection as we mature.
The author closes the chapter by showing how three of the gifts of the Spirit (word of knowledge, tongues, and interpretation of tongues) aid us in our capacity to know intuitively. Thank the Lord for these gifts – they both demand faith to operate in them and also strengthen our faith and the ability of our mind to express spiritual truth.
Lord Jesus, thank you for Your own dear Spirit who is in and with us to bring us into the intimate knowledge of God and then enable us to communicate the unknowable to others. Come, Holy Spirit, and increase Your work in my heart and Your people’s hearts for the sake of Jesus and the glory of God.
Have a blessed week in Him!
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