HOW TO DEVELOP THE RECREATED SPIRIT
HOW TO DEVELOP THE RECREATED SPIRIT
Negative Forces
We have dealt with the positive forces or qualities of the spirit, but there are other forces detrimental to our spiritual development and growth.
Hatred is devastating nations. It is dwarfing beautiful spirits. Men and women, who never hated, now are filled with it.
It is poisoning the blood streams of their bodies. It is poisoning everything beautiful in their bodies. Hate is a devilish thing inspired of hell. It will produce a plague like the flu that followed the First World War. It should never be given place in anyone's life. I would never allow it to gain the ascendancy in my life. It is a poisonous, noxious weed. Another bitter enemy of the spirit is fear. What a deadly enemy to success. It dwarfs our thinking. It devastates faith. It fills the whole life with a spiritual paralysis. One can conquer it by knowing that he is tied up with God, and that the adversary has no power to rule his life. Fear is a child of ignorance on the part of a Son of God.
If you know what your abilities are, and you know that your enemy has been conquered, as you know that two and two make four, and that two quarters make a half, then you can face the thing that gave birth to fear and laugh in its face. You are a conqueror, but as long as ignorance holds sway, that ignorance is darkness and you haven't any light in your life to dispel the darkness. Consequently, you are living in the darkness of ignorance and that darkness is a fearful thing. When you know that the Son has made you free, and the things that you feared have stopped being a destructive force, then you arise and go down life's pathway singing your song of victory.
They cannot fill you with doubt and fear, for you know Him whom you have believed, and you are resting in His grace. Another hideous, monstrous thing is unbelief, doubt. It is a hydra-headed enemy. It often comes in disguise, but the keen spirit-ruled one will recognize it. Doubt and unbelief are born of the same parentage as fear. Unbelief is a product of ignorance of the Word. The man who doubts that there is a God is living in the darkness of Sense Knowledge. He does not know the limitations of Sense Knowledge. Consequently, he accepts its verdict without a question, and the verdict is wrong. It is not based upon facts.
When you know the limitations of Sense Knowledge and how deceptive it is at times, it will put you on your guard. Had Darwin known the limitations of Sense Knowledge, he would never have written the book that has destroyed faith in millions of lives.
Darwin had nothing but Sense evidence. He did not give place to the spirit in his reckoning. He was only half a man in his mental development. The most vital part of him, his spirit, was covered in absolute darkness. The way to destroy unbelief is to become acquainted with the great Father God and with Jesus His Son. This comes to us first, through the Book called the Bible, which is a Revelation from the heart of God to the heart of man.
Another bitter enemy that is born, not of the reason, but of the spirit is despair. It chokes hope, faith, and love out of the heart. It makes destruction seem a pleasure, and a thing to be desired. It has driven every suicide to his fatal end. It hounds the footsteps of the multitudes who are "hitch-hiking" through life. Despair has whipped them. I wondered if anyone had the heroism to face despair and conquer it, then I found that one look into the face of Him who met despair and conquered it could conquer it for me.
To be continued in our next post
The Hidden Man.