A Volatile Essence
Tozer on the Holy Spirit (November 2)
"One meaning of the word 'power' is 'ability to do.' There precisely
is the wonder of the Spirit's work in the Church and in the hearts of
Christians, His sure ability to make spiritual things real to the soul.
This power can go straight to its object with piercing directness; it
can diffuse itself through the mind like an infinitely fine volatile
essence securing ends above and beyond the limits of the intellect.
Reality is its subject matter, reality in heaven and upon earth. It
does not create objects which are not there but reveals objects already
present and hidden from the soul.
In actual human experience this is likely to be first felt in a
heightened sense of the presence of Christ. He is felt to be a real
Person and to be intimately, ravishingly near. Then all other spiritual
objects begin to stand out clearly before the mind."
"The Holy Spirit creates in us a new life and a new set of spiritual
senses altogether, through which we discern, understand, and enter into
the life of God and the spiritual realm."
Comments (4)
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According to the teaching of the Bible and the experience of the believers, man's spirit is composed of three parts, or it has three functions. These three parts are man's conscience, intuition, and fellowship (that is, fellowship with God, which is the same as worship).
The conscience is the discerning organ. The discernment of right and wrong by the conscience is not influenced by the knowledge in the mind; rather, it is a spontaneous, direct judgment. Many times the conscience will condemn even the things that one's reasoning condones. The work of the conscience is mostly independent and direct; it is not affected by outward persuasions. If a man makes a mistake in his conduct, his conscience will condemn him. The intuition is the consciousness within man's spirit. This consciousness is absolutely different from the body-consciousness and the soul-consciousness. The reason it is called intuition is that this consciousness is direct and is not dependent on anything else. We do not need the help of the mind, the emotion, or the will before we can have this knowledge. This knowledge comes directly from intuition. Through his intuition, man can truly "know" something, while his mind can only make him understand it. All God's revelations and all the moving of the Holy Spirit are known by the believers through the intuition. A believer should follow the voice of the conscience and the instruction of the intuition. Fellowship is our worship to God. The mind, the emotion, and the will are the organs of the soul and cannot worship God. God does not come through our mind, emotion, or desires. God is known directly through the spirit. Man worships God and communicates with God directly through the spirit, that is, through the "inner man," and not through the soul or the outward man.
Having seen the above, we now realize how the three parts—the conscience, the intuition, and the fellowship—are deeply integrated together and how they are related to one another in their work. The conscience is linked to the intuition, for the conscience judges according to the intuition. The conscience condemns conduct that is contrary to the intuition. The intuition is also linked to fellowship, or worship. God is known to man in the intuition, and He reveals Himself and His will through the intuition. Hopes and conjectures will not bring us the knowledge of God. Further on, we will discuss these matters in detail. Therefore, we will not say too much about them now.
a very pleasing thought. To be honest, I'm not at that point yet.