Gal. 5:22
Some of the laws governing the spirit life may be summarized briefly as follows -
1) The believer must know what is spirit, and how to give heed to the demands of the spirit, and not quench it, e.g., a weight comes on his spirit, but he goes on with his work, putting up with the pressure; he finds the work hard, but he has no time to investigate the cause, until at last the weight becomes unendurable, and he is forced to stop and see what is the matter, whereas he should have given heed to the claims of the spirit at the first, and in a brief prayer taken the "weight" to God, refusing all pressure from the foe.
2) He should be able to read his spirit, and know at once when it is out of co-operation with the Holy Spirit, quickly refusing all attacks which are drawing his spirit out of the poise of fellowship with God.
3) He should know when his spirit is touched by the poison of the spirits of evil; by the injection, for instance, of sadness, soreness, complaint, grumbling, fault-finding, touchiness, bitterness, feeling hurt, jealousy, etc. - all direct from the enemy to the spirit. He should resist all sadness, gloom, and grumbling injected into his spirit, for the victory life of a freed spirit means joyfulness. ( Gal. 5:22; top ) Believers think that sadness has to do with their disposition, and yield to it without a thought of resistance or reasoning out the cause. If they are asked if a man with a strong disposition to steal should yield to it, they would at once answer "no," yet they yield to other "dispositions" less manifestly wrong, without question.
In the stress of conflict, when the believer finds that the enemy succeeds in reaching his spirit with any of these "fiery darts," he should know how to pray immediately against the attack asking God to destroy the causes of it. It should be noted that this touching of the spirit by the various things just named is not the manifestation of the "works of the flesh," when the believer is one who knows the life after the spirit; although they will quickly reach the sphere of the flesh if not recognized, and dealt with in sharp refusal and resistance.
4) He should know when his spirit is in the right position of dominance over soul and body, and yet not driven beyond due measure by the exigencies of conflict or environment. There are three conditions of the spirit which the believer should be able to discern and deal with, i.e.:
1) The spirit depressed, i.e., crushed or "down."
2) The spirit in its right position, in poise and calm control.
3) The spirit drawn out beyond "poise," when it is in strain, or driven, or in "flight."
When the man walks after the spirit, and discerns it to be in either of these conditions, he knows how to "lift" it when it is depressed; and how to check the over-action by a quiet act of his volition, when it is drawn out of poise by over-eagerness, or drive of spiritual foes.
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