The Masters Indwelling | Page 4

passage "from carnal to spiritual." Did Paul find any spiritual believers?
Undoubtedly he did. Just read the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians! That was a
church where strife, and bitterness, and envy were terrible. But the apostle says in the
first verse: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such
an one in the spirit of meekness." There we see that the marks of the spiritual man are
that he will be a meek man; and that he will have power, and love to help and restore
those that are fallen. The carnal man can not do that. If there is a true spiritual life that
can be lived, the great question is: Is the way open, and how can I enter into the spiritual
state? Here, again, I have four short answers.
First, we must know that there is such a spiritual life to be lived by men on earth. Nothing
cuts the roots of the Christian life so much as unbelief. People do not believe what God
has said about what He is willing to do for His children. Men do not believe that when
God says, "Be filled with the Spirit," He means it for every Christian. And yet Paul wrote
to the Ephesians each one: "Be filled with the Spirit, and do not be drunk with wine." Just
as little as you may be drunk with wine, so little may you live without being filled with
the Spirit. Now, if God means that for believers, the first thing that we need is to study,

and to take home God's Word, to our belief until our hearts are filled with the assurance
that there is such a life possible which it is our duty to live; that we can be spiritual men.
God's Word teaches us that God does not expect a man to live as he ought for one minute
unless the Holy Spirit is in him to enable him to do it.
We do not want the Holy Spirit only when we go to preach, or when we have some
special temptation of the devil to meet, or some great burden to bear; God says: "My
child can not live a right life unless he is guided by my Spirit every minute." That is the
mark of the child of God: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God." In Romans V. we read: "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit given unto us." That is to be the common, every-day experience of the believer, not
his life at set times only. Did ever a father or mother think, "For to-day I want my child to
love me?" No, they expect the love every day. And so God wants His child every
moment to have a heart filled with love of the Spirit. In the eyes of God, it is most
unnatural to expect a man to love as he should if he is not filled with the Spirit. Oh, let us
believe a man can be a spiritual man. Thank God, there is now the blessing waiting us.
"Be filled with the Spirit." "Be led by the Spirit." There is the blessing. If you have to say,
"Oh, God, I have not this blessing," say it; but say also, "Lord, I know it is my duty, my
solemn obligation to have it, for without it I can not live in perfect peace with Thee all
the day; without it I can not glorify Thee, and do the work Thou wouldst have me do."
This is our first step from carnal to spiritual,--to recognize a spiritual life, a walk in the
Spirit, is within our reach. How can we ask God to guide us into spiritual life, if we have
not a clear, confident conviction that there is such a life to be had?
Then comes the second step; a man must see the shame and guilt of his having lived such
a life. Some people admit there is a spiritual life to live, and that they have not lived it,
and they are sorry for themselves, and pity themselves, and think, "How sad that I am too
feeble for it! How sad that God gives it to others, but has not given it to me!" They have
great compassion upon themselves, instead of saying, "Alas! it has been our
unfaithfulness, our unbelief, our disobedience, that has kept us from giving ourselves
utterly to God. We have to blush and to be ashamed before God that we do not live as
spiritual men."
A man does not get converted without having conviction of sin. When that conviction of
sin comes, and