01.07. Supernatural Powers Cause Divisions

In brief, the soul-life, influenced by evil supernatural powers, is the main cause of divisions and separations among the professing and even the true children of God. "These be they who separate, men governed by soul ..." writes Jude (Jude 1:19). " Separate themselves" is the A.V. and "make separations" the R.V. text. "Arrogant setting up of themselves, as having greater sanctity and a wisdom and peculiar doctrine, distinct from others is implied," writes Fausset in his commentary. Fausset also translates the words, "sensual" of the A.V. and R.V. text in this passage, as literally "animal-souled".

"Separate themselves " as " having greater sanctity ", is always a mark of the soulish life, for the Lord Jesus said, " Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you ... for the Son of Man’s sake" (Luke 6:22, R.V.). The Apostle Paul also said in answer to a question about separation, " Let each man abide in that calling wherein he is called ", and therein " abide with God ". God Himself will " separate " those who walk in light, and those who abide in darkness, by His Presence as the Light, and often the one who elects to walk in the " darkness " will either cast out the one abiding in the light, or himself be brought into the light. Men can be " governed by soul ", even when they have the Holy Spirit, and these soulish ones always " separate themselves ", and " make separations ", proving that in some degree they are " soulish ", and not " spiritual". The other department of the soul-life is the emotional, which proceeds from the senses of the body; and here again a Christian may be swayed by the soulish, and think it all " spiritual ". Pember says that a " knowledge of Biblical psychology dissipates the idea that any holy spiritual influence can be set in motion by appeals to the senses ". Yet the reaching of the spirit through the senses is the purpose of many Church services, and even mission meetings where the Gospel is proclaimed. Pember’s words on this subject are illuminating. He says, " splendid buildings, gorgeous vestments, and picturesque rites for the eye, with sweet odours for the scent, and ravishing music for the ear, although they may bewitch one’s consciousness with the most agreeable sensations, can penetrate only as far as the soul ... [yet] our spirit does not receive its impressions from the senses, but only from spirit...." *( Pember’s Earth’s Earliest Ages) He points out also that the order of our being from God’s point of view, is spirit, soul, body, because " God’s influence commences in the spirit, then lays hold of the emotions and the intellect, and lastly begins to curb the body ". From the standpoint of Satan it is reversed. We have (I) earthly, (2) soulish, (3) demoniacal, (James 3:15) because Satan’s influence enters by the clay made body; then seizes upon the soul; and, whenever possible, gains entrance to the spirit.

How solemn are the facts herein set forth. How clearly they show why the churches are filled with nominalworshippers of Christ, who show no marks of a true Christianlife within them ! How sad it is that the very presence of these worshippers shows that within the spirit they have an unconscious cry after God, which in thousands of cases is never satisfied, for their soul-life alone is met, either in its intellectual department by intellectual soul-ish presentation of the letter of the truth; or their sense-life is gratified by soothing music and the calming influences of the hour of quiet, without their being led into real worship of God in spirit and in truth which alone is acceptable to Him. Are all these influences to be depreciated? God forbid. But they will not save the "soul"! They may, and do, prepare the way by bringing the person within reach of the truth which is read from the Scriptures, if not preached in the pulpit, and all these outer things that make for righteousness have their value and place.

But-and this is the serious danger-influences that PENETRATE ONLY TO THE SOUL and do not reach the spirit in regenerating power are deceptive and give the person a "form of godliness without the power" and bring the spiritual religion of Jesus Christ down to the level of heathen philosophies and cults. Hence "religious" men who are merely "men of soul" place the Son of God on an equality with Mahomet and Confucius and discuss Christianity as "one of the religions" of the world, instead of men being compelled to see, as in the days of the early Church at Pentecost, the Omnipotent power of God bearing witness to the Name of His Son as the only Saviour for a lost world.

Again in mission work the appeal to the senses and emotions of the soul accounts for the large percentage of converts who do not stand and the evanescent influence of much evangelistic mission work; as well as in many instances the excessive exhaustion of the worker, and oft-times his eventual "breakdown". A correspondent writes: "Is it not the exercise of the soulish, or natural man--the glow, feeling, emotion and energy in speaking to others publicly or privately that cause nerve exhaustion? And is it not possible for the Spirit to quicken the truth without the strain or wear and tear of the body? To tell out God’s truth with no `excitement’ and for God to breathe out His power in the words you speak, not through you so much as through your testimony, after it leaves your lips and enters into the minds of others? It does seem as if it could be done and with far less fatigue if my surmise be true." A man may have naturally a "fiery" soul and by that fiery soul sway and move the soul-emotions of others, but their faith then stands in the influence or wisdom of the man they have listened to and not in the power of God. We can now see what Dr. Andrew Murray means when he says that the greatest danger which the Church or individual has to dread is the "inordinate activity of the soul with its power of mind and will ". The old Quakers used to cal this "creaturely activity: and it is manifestly the energy of the creature being used in the service of God rather than the creature seeking in spirit to co-operate with the Holy Spirit given to him as the Gift of the Risen Son of God.

We find the intellectual man, with his spirit yet unquickened, dealing with the eternal destinies of immortal souls; and the strong-willed man exercising his will and dominant personality over the consciences and lives of others! Schemes, therefore, to reach men and bring them to God, by smoking concerts, musical attractions, lectures on popular subjects, etc., are but the outcome of various types of "soul" in men who desire to help others. Such men may be regenerated, but "governed by soul" and not knowing the Spirit of God dwelling in the spirit to energise them by His indwelling power and use them as messengers of God in the salvation of men. But there is another section of the Christian Church and a much smaller company who, knowing the Spirit of God indwelling them, are "soulish" in a much lesser degree. These are they who have a mixture of "soul and spirit" in their religious experiences and are not satisfied unless they feel the presence of God continually with them in the realm of their self-consciousness. Consequently although the Holy Spirit dwells in them, they often fall into the realm of the soulish-life because they do not understand the spirit life and the actions of the human spirit in co-action with God. The "soul" not only comprises the intellect and the emotions, but from the Scriptures it can be seen that the soul is the seat of the personality in its affections, power of joy or grief, etc. Thus it is written: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful ... " (Matthew 26:38). "My soul doth magnify the Lord " (Luke 1:46); "Now is my soul troubled . . . " (John 12:27); "In patience possess ye your souls" (Luke 21:19); " Vexed his righteous soul"(2 Peter 2:8); "Beguiling unstable souls" (2 Peter 2:14). It is therefore clear that the idiosyncrasies of the individual exist in the soul as well as in the physical disposition of the body. And this shape of the soul, if we may use the expression, in its capacity for joy, love, grief, patience, etc. may be filled with a spiritual joy from the Spirit-life of the Second Adam, poured out into the vessel of the soul; or filled with a soulish-or sensuous joy, moving into the vessel of the soul from the lower life of the First Adam. In the latter case the believer, although indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is "soulish " to the degree in which the animal-soul-life has play in the realm of these various capacities of the soul. He may cling to a soul-ish joy and live in the realm of his feelings; in the seat of his self-consciousness and not in the spirit, the place of the God consciousness; and thus be among those believers who are always seeking for spiritual "experiences " in the sense consciousness, instead of in the purity of the God-conscious realm alone-the regenerated human spirit. At this point let us see how the spirits of evil work upon the soul-ish life in all its phases. The soul and the "powers of darkness" If in your hearts you have bitter feelings of envy and rivalry, do not speak boastingly and falsely in defiance of the truth. That is not the wisdom which comes down from above: it belongs to earth, to the un-spiritual nature (Greek, psychical) and to evil spirits" (James 3:14-15 Weymouth). In the R.V., as we have seen, the text runs, "This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual (i.e., natural-the literal Greek is pertaining to the soul’) devilish (margin of R.V. demoniacal)". This passage we have already referred to, but quote it again as showing conclusively the relationship of the forces of evil to the animal-soul-life. We have not here any reference to the "works of the flesh" but to man’s intellectual department-i.e., the soul and the words of the text show that evil spirits work upon the soulish part of the man, as certainly as thy do upon his fleshly nature.

It is startling to see the truth put so bluntly and to know that all bitter feelings of envy and rivalry in connection with the gaining or possession of knowledge are instigated by evil spirits working upon the soul-ish life and have their origin-as Fausset writes-in hell. This is very little understood by many true children of God. They may acknowledge satanic influence in the matter of gross sin and the manifestation of the "works of the flesh ", but not in the realm of what they consider the highest part of the civilisation of to-day. Back of this lies the unwillingness to recognise statements of the Word of God concerning the Fall and the utter sinking of the entire first creation into corruption and death, so that even the "imagination " of the "thoughts of his heart "-i.e., mental conceptions-was seen by God to be "evil continually "; and back of this total corruption again lies the poison of the serpent, who obtained entrance through the avenue of the desire for wisdom. In the progress of the renewal of the redeemed man it is to the interest of the forces of evil that any element of the fallen life whether fleshly or soulish, should be kept active, for as the believer becomes "spiritual" , he more and more is united in actual spirit-union with the Lord of Glory and hence more and more escapes the power of evil spirits and becomes equipped to recognize them and war against them. But it must first be recognised clearly that the "Fall" was the result of believing the lie of Satan, the fallen archangel and that when Satan succeeded, there entered the race of fallen man a poison which runs through every element of his being. This gives Satan power of access to every part of his tri-partite nature, i.e. (a) the fallen spirit, dead to God, is open to the hellish dark world of spirits ruled over by the Prince of Darkness; (b) the soul, including the intellect, imagination, thought, will and affections is governed by the life of the first Adam, which is fallen and corrupt, and (c) body and soul is therefore open in every department to the power of the Poisoner. Consequently, the Apostle John declares with blunt language that the " whole world lieth in the evil one"(1 John 5:19) The fallen man not only has to be redeemed by the life-blood of the Son of God, but he has to be actually translated out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s Son and every department of his being,beginning with his spirit, ACTUALLY RENEWED stage by stage by deliverance from the power of sin and the animal-soul-life. If the first creation was "fearfully and wonderfully made", then in truth the re-creation of the creature utterly sunk into the animal-soul and the animal flesh, and lifted again into the realm of spirit to have spirit-dominion over soul and body, is a wondrous work, which only the Triune God could accomplish; the Father giving the Son, the Son giving His life and the Divine Spirit giving Himself with patience and love to work out the will of the Trinity. That the Prince of Darkness resists every step of the man’s deliverance out of his thraldom is easy to understand and it is necessary that we should know clearly the elements in the fallen creation which are open to his power. That he fully controls the unregenerate man is clearly shown in Ephesians 2:2, where the Apostle says that the " children of wrath " doing "the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts " (i.e., soul-ish life), are wholly dominated by him. Then, when the spirit of the man has been quickened into life and he has been delivered from the power of sin, the soul-ish life and elements in the physical body are open to evil powers. For example(I) First in the soul-ish life, the soulish wisdom becomes "demoniacal" when evil spirits use it to accomplish their plans, e.g., the enemy can arouse a mental prejudice, or pre-conceived idea-unknown to the man and use it at a critical moment to frustrate the work of the Spirit of God. This working of the enemy through the mind of a believer, when the heart and spirit may be true to God, is a most serious fact in the Church of God to-day, for through the various "ideas" of good men, the Spirit of God is sometimes hindered even more than through the unbelief and hatred of the world. And again, in the realm of the emotional-soul-life, the adversary can so rouse the life of nature that the deep work of the Spirit of God is quenched or checked, and His voice unheard.(2) In the physical body, the adversary can work upon the nervous system and use the animal magnetism which is inherent in every human frame, as well as many other elements open to the powers of evil, in addition to "the works of the flesh" and what is generally called sin. These elements are in the very "make-up" of the human vessel and on the part of the believer there should be a keen seeking of light from God on his complex being, that he may understand himself, and know how to act and walk in humble dependence upon the Risen Lord for protection from the evil one-a protection which can only operate as the man looks to the blood of Jesus and in implicit obedience to the written Word, keeps himself open to all truth which will give him light upon any possible ground he may have given to the spirits of evil to attack, or gain admittance to mind or body. For the powers of darkness are keenly clever in working alongside of, or simulating "natural" conditions, either in temperament or disturbance of the bodily functions, or frame and they watch for some physical or mental ailment to serve as the cover, or as an "excuse" for their workings. ( For full elucidation of this aspect of truth, see War on the Saints, a text book on the work of deceiving spirits among the children of God.)* i.e., the attack may be in the natural and physical realm, but not from it as the source.