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035 - Note C The Place of the Indwelling Chap 6 · Spirit of Christ

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  Speaker 1: Note see of the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Note see
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  Speaker 1: the Place of the Indwelling, Chapter six. In studying the
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  Speaker 1: teaching of Scripture on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: it is of great consequence to see clearly what it
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  Speaker 1: tells us of the place where the Spirit dwells and
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  Speaker 1: the mode in which he works. And to this end
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  Speaker 1: we need to be specially careful to seek correct views
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  Speaker 1: as to the difference between the soul and the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of man and their mutual relation. In the history of
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  Speaker 1: man's creation we read the Lord God formed Man of
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  Speaker 1: the dust of the ground. Thus was his body made,
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  Speaker 1: and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life.
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  Speaker 1: Thus his spirit came from God, and Man became a
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  Speaker 1: living soul. The spirit, it quickening the body, made man
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  Speaker 1: a living soul, a living person with the consciousness of himself.
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  Speaker 1: The soul was the meeting place, the point of union
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  Speaker 1: between body and spirit. Through the body, Man, the living
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  Speaker 1: soul stood related to the external world of sense, could
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  Speaker 1: influence it or be influenced by it. Through the spirit,
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  Speaker 1: he stood related to the spiritual world, and the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of God, whence he had his origin, could be the
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  Speaker 1: recipient and the minister of its life and power. Standing
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  Speaker 1: thus midway between two worlds, belonging to both, the soul
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  Speaker 1: had the power of determining itself, of choosing or refusing
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  Speaker 1: the objects by which it was surrounded and to which
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  Speaker 1: it stood related. In the constitution of these three parts
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  Speaker 1: of man's nature, the Spirit, as linking him with the Divine,
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  Speaker 1: was the highest, the body, connecting him with the sensible
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  Speaker 1: and animal, the lowest. Intermediate stood the soul, partaker of
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  Speaker 1: the nature of the others, the bond that united them
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  Speaker 1: and through which they could act on each other. Its
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  Speaker 1: work as the central power was to maintain them in
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  Speaker 1: their due relation, to keep the body as the lowest
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  Speaker 1: in subjection to the spirit itself, to receive, through the spirit,
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  Speaker 1: as the higher, from the divine Spirit, what was waiting
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  Speaker 1: for its perfection, and so to pass down even to
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  Speaker 1: the body, that by which it might be partaker of
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit's perfection and become a spiritual body. The wondrous
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  Speaker 1: gifts with which the soul was endowed, specially those of
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  Speaker 1: consciousness and self determination or mind and will, were but
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  Speaker 1: the mold or vessel into which the life of the spirit,
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  Speaker 1: the real substance and truth of the divine life, was
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  Speaker 1: to be received and assimilated. They were a God given
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  Speaker 1: capacity for making the knowledge and the will of God
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  Speaker 1: its own. In doing this, the personal life of the
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  Speaker 1: soul would have become filled and possessed with the life
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  Speaker 1: of the spirit. The whole of man would have become spiritual.
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  Speaker 1: We know how the opposite of this took place. The
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  Speaker 1: soul yielded to these solicitations of sense and became its slave,
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  Speaker 1: so that the spirit no longer ruled, but vainly strove
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  Speaker 1: to vindicate for God his place, until God said, my
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  Speaker 1: spirit shall not strive with man forever, for that he
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  Speaker 1: also is flesh. Wholly under the power of the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: the spirit in man became dormant, a capacity for knowing
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  Speaker 1: and serving God which would have to wait its time
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  Speaker 1: for deliverance and quickening. The soul ruled instead of the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: And the great mark of all religion, even in its
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  Speaker 1: most earnest struggles after God, is that the soul man's
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  Speaker 1: own energy without the divine spirit putting forth its effort
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  Speaker 1: to find and to please God. In regeneration. It is
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  Speaker 1: this spirit of man which is quickened again and renewed.
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  Speaker 1: The word regeneration or being born again Scripture uses as
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  Speaker 1: that change whereby the soul passes from death to life,
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  Speaker 1: effected like the natural birth, at once and once for all.
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  Speaker 1: The word renewed is used of that continuous and progressive
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  Speaker 1: work by which the life of the Spirit of God
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  Speaker 1: enters more fully into our life and asserts its supremacy
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  Speaker 1: through our entire nature. In the regenerate man, the original
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  Speaker 1: relation between the soul and the spirit has been restored.
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  Speaker 1: The spirit of man has been quickened to become an
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  Speaker 1: habitation of God's Spirit, who is now to teach and
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  Speaker 1: to lead by communicating as a divine life, as something
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  Speaker 1: substantial and real, the truth, the actual good things which
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  Speaker 1: Christ has for us. This divine lead into the truth
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  Speaker 1: by the Spirit of God takes place not in our
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  Speaker 1: soul or mind in the first place, but in our spirit,
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  Speaker 1: in the inner recesses of a life deeper than mind
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  Speaker 1: or will. And it takes place only as the soul
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  Speaker 1: in the confession of how blinded it has become, of
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  Speaker 1: how slowly its faculties really become spiritual and divinely enlightened.
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  Speaker 1: In the willingness to be foolish and ignorant, and in
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  Speaker 1: teachableness to wait on God's Spirit to give his truth
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  Speaker 1: in the life, yields itself to that complete supremacy of
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit, which was its original destiny, and now comes
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  Speaker 1: the most important lesson, not easy to learn, for the
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  Speaker 1: sake of which we have at some length spoken of
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  Speaker 1: the relation between the soul and the spirit. The greatest
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  Speaker 1: danger the religion of the church or the individual has
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  Speaker 1: to dread is the inordinate activity of the soul, with
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  Speaker 1: its power of mind and will. It has been so
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  Speaker 1: long accustomed to rule that even when in conversion it
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  Speaker 1: has surrendered to Jesus, it too easily imagines that it
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  Speaker 1: is now its work to carry out that surrender and
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  Speaker 1: serve the King it has accepted. Many a believer has
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  Speaker 1: no conception of the reality of the spirits in dwelling,
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  Speaker 1: and of the extent to which he must get the
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  Speaker 1: mastery of the soul, that is of our whole self
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  Speaker 1: in all our feeling and thinking and willing, so as
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  Speaker 1: to purge out all confidence in the flesh and work
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  Speaker 1: that teachableness and submissiveness, which is indispensable to the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: doing his work, the call of the Master to hate
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  Speaker 1: our own life, not to seek it, but to lose it.
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  Speaker 1: The word used is psyche soul is the call to
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  Speaker 1: give the soul, with its power of willing and acting
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  Speaker 1: unto death, that it may find its true life again
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  Speaker 1: in the quickening and leading of the Spirit. As long
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  Speaker 1: as this is not understood, there will not be that
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  Speaker 1: fear of self and its wisdom, that absolute dependence and
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  Speaker 1: waiting on the Spirit, which is the first condition of
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  Speaker 1: the spiritual life. To those who would be saved from
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  Speaker 1: these dangers, who would fain return to the normal state
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  Speaker 1: in which and for which God created man, the way
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  Speaker 1: is open, though not always easy. Begin with the prayer
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  Speaker 1: that we may know the Holy Spirit, his dwelling place,
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  Speaker 1: his way, and his work, and what he claims. Seek
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  Speaker 1: a deep impression of the Holy mystery and the divine
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  Speaker 1: reality of his indwelling. As truly as God dwelt in
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  Speaker 1: the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, so truly, though in
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  Speaker 1: a different way, does he dwell in thee. Have a
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  Speaker 1: deep reverence for the Holy presence, Be very jealous of
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  Speaker 1: aught that would grieve him, Remember especially that what grieves
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  Speaker 1: him most. Next to sin. And what is sometimes more
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  Speaker 1: dangerous to ourselves than sin is the soul repeating the
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  Speaker 1: first offense and following its own thoughts about what is
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  Speaker 1: good and wise. Understand that thou hast received the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: that now the soul may be entirely under his dominion.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine not that the fact of thy admitting that thou
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  Speaker 1: needest the Spirit's teaching, or that thou askest for him,
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  Speaker 1: is enough to secure his working. No, indeed, it needs
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  Speaker 1: a very real giving up of the life of the soul,
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  Speaker 1: of all its strength and wisdom day by day, and
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  Speaker 1: a very real subjection of the whole mind and will
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  Speaker 1: to wait for his quickening and his teaching. If thou
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  Speaker 1: art indeed to learn to know and worship God in
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  Speaker 1: the spirit, to gather up what has been said. The
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  Speaker 1: Spirit is the seat of our God consciousness, the soul
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  Speaker 1: of our self consciousness, the body of our world consciousness.
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  Speaker 1: In the spirit, God dwells in the soul self in
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  Speaker 1: the body sense. As long as the right relation existed
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  Speaker 1: and the soul with itself was subject to the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: and through it to God, all was well. But sin
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  Speaker 1: came as the assertion of self in seeking its life
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  Speaker 1: through sense and not obedience to the spirit, and so
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  Speaker 1: the soul self selfishness became the ruling principle of man's life.
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  Speaker 1: In the regenerate man, there is no more subtle temptation
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  Speaker 1: than this, that, even in the service of God, self
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  Speaker 1: still seeks to assert itself and in its will and
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  Speaker 1: strength to do God's will, instead of waiting independence on
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit for him to work both to will
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  Speaker 1: and to do. This is why the Lord Jesus said
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  Speaker 1: so distinctly, let a man deny himself and take up
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  Speaker 1: his cross. The life and the power of self must
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  Speaker 1: be sacrificed and given up for the Spirit to work.
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  Speaker 1: Even so he speaks of our hating and loving our life, soul.
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  Speaker 1: If we are to find the true life, the life
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  Speaker 1: of the Spirit in the believer, there is ever going
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  Speaker 1: on a secret struggle between the soul and the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: On behalf of God, the spirit seeks to possess and
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  Speaker 1: pervade all. On behalf of Self, the soul seeks to
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  Speaker 1: take the first place and to assert the right of
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  Speaker 1: independent action. As long as this is the case, and
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  Speaker 1: the soul takes the lead, expecting the spirit to follow
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  Speaker 1: and help and bless what it does, our life and
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  Speaker 1: work will be barren of truly spiritual results. Only when
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  Speaker 1: the soul, with all of itself, its willing and running,
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  Speaker 1: is daily denied and laid in the dust for the
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  Speaker 1: spirit to work, will the power of God be manifest
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  Speaker 1: in our service. Here is the cause of such frequent
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  Speaker 1: failure in the spiritual life, of the evanescent character of
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  Speaker 1: many of our most precious experiences. Our faith stood more
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  Speaker 1: in the wisdom of man, in the influence of human
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  Speaker 1: teaching and human apprehension, than in the power of God
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  Speaker 1: and his Spirit. This is what is meant in Hebrews four,
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  Speaker 1: verse twelve. The Word of God is living and active,
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  Speaker 1: and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to
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  Speaker 1: the dividing of soul and spirit. Just as in creation,
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  Speaker 1: the first work of the Word was to divide, separating
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  Speaker 1: between light and darkness, earth and sea. So as the
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  Speaker 1: living Word, by the Holy Spirit does its work in us,
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  Speaker 1: the difference between the Spirit as the higher and the
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  Speaker 1: seat of the Divine, and the soul as the lower, ever,
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  Speaker 1: with all its powers to be kept subject to the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: becomes clear to us, and we learn to understand that
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  Speaker 1: in the renewed Spirit is the home of God's Holy Spirit. Master,
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  Speaker 1: Where dwellest thou? The disciples asked, when first they began
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  Speaker 1: to know Jesus, Come and see was his answer, and
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  Speaker 1: they abode with him that night, Holy Teacher, Where dwellest
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  Speaker 1: thou is a question we may indeed ask, as we
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  Speaker 1: long to know the Spirit. The answer Jesus has given us.
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  Speaker 1: He shall be in you in that inner shrine of
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  Speaker 1: our wondrous nature. The spirit deeper than the soul, with
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  Speaker 1: all its life of feeling and thought and will, which
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  Speaker 1: God made for himself. In the spirit, quickened by his power,
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  Speaker 1: There dwells the Holy Spirit there, in the life which
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  Speaker 1: He has imparted. There he dwells that life he leads
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  Speaker 1: ever deeper into the truth, the actual possession of the
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  Speaker 1: substance of the grace revealed in Christ. It is only
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  Speaker 1: the soul that knows that he dwells there and waits
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  Speaker 1: for his teaching there, to whom will be given as
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  Speaker 1: much as it needs, and can bear of that truth
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  Speaker 1: in the intellect, which otherwise is so impotent and even dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: Paul writes, God, whom I serve in my spirit, it
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  Speaker 1: is as I know that I have a spirit, the
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  Speaker 1: seat of self collectedness, the inner sanctuary formed for receiving
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  Speaker 1: the communications from the divine world deeper than the thought
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  Speaker 1: or feeling, and retire there to wait on God's Spirit
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  Speaker 1: and set it open to him that I will learn
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  Speaker 1: to know where he dwells. Only when he is acknowledged
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  Speaker 1: and honored. There will he come forth from the secret
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  Speaker 1: place to manifest his power in the region of the
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  Speaker 1: soul and its conscious life. When speaking of the believer
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  Speaker 1: as a temple, I shall have occasion again to point
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  Speaker 1: out the difference between the holy place the soul, and
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  Speaker 1: the most holy the Spirit. Twenty four end of Note
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  Speaker 1: C