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I. Denying the soul
А. Denying the mind, emotion, and will
B. Practicing to deny the self
C. The life and faculties of the soul
D. Giving up the natural life
II. The mind, emotion, and will renewed and uplifted
А. An uplifted understanding
B. A spiritual emotion
C. A strong, renewed will
D. Faculties to express the Lord
III. A life of denying the soul and turning to the spirit
А. Taking the Lord as life
B. Under the control of the spirit
In the foregoing lesson we saw that the spirit and the soul are two different parts of our being. Hebrews 4:12 says that the living word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit. This verse shows not only that the spirit and soul are different, but also that there is a need for the spirit to be divided from the soul. We must deny our soul in order to give ground to our spirit.
[In the teaching of the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, it always tells us that we have to deny the soul, to lose the soul, but it never tells us that we have to deny the spirit. In the Epistles, we are always told that we have to walk according to spirit, live in the spirit, and do things by the spirit. In the Gospels is the denying of the soul; then is the Epistles you have walking according to the spirit (Romans 8:4). The New Testament doesn't tell us to walk and live and do things in the soul.
Matthew 10:38-39 says, "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his soul (the word here in Greek is psuche, meaning soul) shall lose it, and he who loses his soul for My sake shall find it." Then Matthew 16:24-26 says, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his soul shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he should gain the whole world, but forfeit his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The soul must be denied.]
[In all the four Gospels the Lord told us again and again that we have to lose the soul, to deny the soul [Mark 8:35-36; Luke 9:24-25; John 12:25], but you cannot find a word telling us that we have to lose the spirit or deny the spirit. On the contrary, the Epistles charge us to walk according to spirit, to do things in the spirit, and to pray in the spirit (Rom. 8:4; Rom. 1:9; Eph. 6:18). In the teachings of the Gospels we are told to deny the soul, to lose the soul, but in the teachings of all the Epistles we have to take care of the spirit, walk in the spirit, and we have to do things, to pray in the spirit. So there is a big, big difference between the soul and the spirit.]
[The soul is comprised of three parts — the mind, the emotion, and the will (see The Economy of God, pp. 54-56). If you deny your mind, your emotion, and your will, there is nothing left but the spirit. The self is gone. To give up your mind, emotion, and will simply means to give up yourself. To deny yourself is to deny your own thought, your opinion, your idea, your concept, your love, your wish, your will, your decision, and your choice. To deny all this means to deny the self.] [After we deny the self, we have the spirit. If we deny the emotion, mind, and will, we give the opportunity, the ground, to the spirit.]
[If you denied your natural thought, the spirit within you would rise up. Because we are so much in the soul, in the mind, emotion, and will, our human spirit does not have the chance, the ground, to do anything. We must practice continually to deny our mind, our emotion, and our will. When I love a brother so much, that may be natural love. If I give up that love, my spirit will have a chance to express something of the Lord. If I give up something in my soul then my spirit will express something of the Lord. This is why the Lord tells us that we have to deny ourselves. We have to deny our soul, to lose our soul, because we regenerated persons have another part, an inmost part, which is the quickened, regenerated spirit with the Holy Spirit of God indwelling it. We have such a wonderful part of our being, a spiritual part, a living part, a quickened part, yet we don't know it and don't give it the chance or the ground to do anything.
If you are not happy with a certain brother, it is simply because you are in the self. If you deny yourself you will love that brother very much. At other times, however, you love certain brothers so much, simply because you are in the emotion, in the soul. If you would deny your emotion, deny your self, your love toward that brother would be transformed from the soul into the spirit. The lesson for us to learn today as Christians to experience life, is to learn how to deny the soul. The soul is the self, and the self consists of three things - the mind, emotion, and will. To deny the soul simply means to deny your mind, emotion, and will.]
[Some might think that if we deny the soul, we will not be able to live. But we must realize that there is a difference between the life of the soul and the faculties of the soul. The life of the soul is one thing, and the faculties of the soul are another thing. An illustration might help us to see this difference. I knew a married couple in China. The brother was so spiritual and the sister, as a wife, was so submissive. Whenever you went to their home or met with them, you had the sense that the husband was the life to the wife. The wife had her own life, but she gave up her own life and took her husband as the life. She never said anything on her own. She always said something according to what her husband said. If you asked her, "Sister, do you like this piano?" She would say, "My husband likes it." Perhaps you would ask, "Do you like this meeting hall?" She would respond, "My husband says it is wonderful." With her, it was always "my husband, my husband," yet she spoke. She gave up her life and took her husband as the life, yet she still used the faculties of her soul.
We brothers always thought that sister was wonderful because she always took her husband as her life. She just lost her own life. She gave up her own life, but she still used her faculties. She still used her mind, emotion, and will, but she gave up her own life and took another life as her life.]
[The natural life, the life of the soul, has been crucified on the cross (Gal. 2:20). Now we have to take the Lord as our life. We must give up the natural life, the life of the soul, and take the Lord in the spirit as our life. This doesn't mean, however, that we must give up the faculties of our soul, but the life of the soul. All the faculties of our soul still remain as the organs to be used by the Lord in the spirit.]
[Do not think that all thoughts come from hell or that all intents come from the self. Some thoughts come from the heavens, and some intents are for God. But mostly we have a mixture in our thoughts and intents and need the living, operative, sharp word to pierce into us and discern our thoughts and intents, revealing which are of and for the self and which are of and for God. If we are left by ourselves, we cannot discern these matters. But once we experience the living word of God, it is easy to discern the thoughts that are not of God and the intents that are of Satan.]
[The more you are one with the Lord in the spirit, the more you are spiritual, the more keen you will be in your mind. Before you take the Lord as life, you are quite dull in your thinking, but if you deny yourself and take the Lord as your life, you will be very keen in your thinking. In China quite a number of older sisters never had any kind of education, yet they loved the Lord to the uttermost and knew how to give up themselves, taking the Lord as life. After two or three years they became very keen in their mind, in their understanding, especially in the things of the Lord. They became experts. But with those who have little love for the Lord, even if they have a Ph.D., there is little comprehension of spiritual things. When you talk with them about the things of the Lord, they say, "What is this? I cannot figure it out."]
[It is the same thing with the emotion. Don't think that the Lord demands that you give up the organ, the faculty, of your emotion. The Lord demands that you give up the life of the emotion, but you have to exercise the emotion more and more. If you do love the Lord and are really filled with the Lord's Spirit, you will be very emotional. A man who is not emotional can never be spiritual. A spiritual person is a very emotional person. If you never know how to love, if you never know how to weep, if you never know how to be happy, and if you never know how to be sorry, I am afraid that you are not a Christian.
The most spiritual person is the most emotional, yet his emotion is under the control of the spirit. The Apostle Paul was very emotional. He tells us that at times he wept with tears (Phil. 3:18; Acts 20:19,31). He was quite tender in feeling, in love, in mercy, and in compassion. He was tender, but he was not naturally emotional. His emotion was a spiritual emotion under the control of the spirit.]
[A spiritual person, on the one hand, is so keen in the mind and emotion, and on the other hand, so strong in the will. Not one spiritual person is like a jelly-fish, without any backbone. Naturally emotional people are like jelly-fish. All the spiritually emotional persons are so tender in their emotions and strong in the will. The more you are in the spirit, the stronger you will be in the will.]
[A spiritual person is one who is so keen in the understanding of the mind, so emotional in his love and affection, and so strong in his will. The faculties of the soul are organs used by the Spirit to express the Lord. The Lord is so wise and full of thought (Psa. 139:17-18a). A spiritual person isn't a thoughtless person. The more spiritual you are, the more thoughtful you are in the spirit. I can testify that the more I am in the spirit, the richer I am in thought. But whenever I am so much in my self, I am poor in thought.
We must realize, therefore, that it is not the mind, emotion, and will that have to be destroyed. It is the life of the soul that we must give up. This natural life, the soul life, has been put to death on the cross already (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6). Now you have to take Christ, your husband (2 Cor. 11:2), as your life. You must take the divine life as your life, but the faculties of the soul still remain as organs to be used by your spirit to express the Lord Himself.]
[As Christians we have to reject our mind, emotion, and will. We must reject ourselves and take the Lord Jesus as our life. This is done by returning to our spirit and sensing what is there in our spirit. Suppose a brother comes to talk with you. While you are listening, you must reject yourself. You must reject your natural thinking, your emotion, and your will. You have to take the Lord Jesus as your life in this particular matter by returning to your spirit, your innermost part, to sense what is there. This is the right way for us to act as a Christian, but most of us do not act in this way. Whenever a brother comes to talk with us, we exercise our mind independent of the spirit. We sometimes forget about the Lord Jesus and forget that we have a spirit. The way for a normal Christian to act, though, is to always deny the natural mind, will, and emotion, and take the Lord Jesus as his life. In everything we should return to the innermost part of our being to sense what is there.]
[We must learn the lesson to deny the natural mind, emotion, and will, and to put them under the control of the spirit. We deny the life of the soul and take the Lord as our life in the spirit to control and direct all the parts of the soul in order that they might be used to express the Lord Himself.]
[To deny the soul means that we turn from ourselves to the spirit. Then in the spirit we will meet Christ. Why do the four Gospels tell us negatively to deny the soul, while later all the Epistles tell us positively to live and do things in the spirit? Because today the Lord Jesus is in the spirit, and His grace is in the spirit. To follow Christ is a matter of dealing with the spirit, and this is the mark of God's economy! Oh, we need to stress again this mark of God's economy! We all must be clear that God's eternal plan is to dispense Himself into our spirit. He has done this already, for He is now in our spirit to be our life and everything. All our needs are met in this wonderful Spirit who is in our spirit.]
The New Testament teaches us that we have to deny our soul. The soul is the self. To deny our soul simply means to deny our mind, our emotion, and our will and to turn to our spirit. The life of the soul is different from the faculties of the soul. We deny the life of the soul, but the faculties remain as organs to be used by the spirit to express the Lord.
