Activate your Five Spiritual Senses

The language of the heart is transmitted through our Five Spiritual Senses. Let me unpack that for you a little bit:

The heart is the meeting place with God. If we have placed our faith in Jesus (in His death, burial, and resurrection), then He actually lives in our hearts by His Spirit. 

However, to be led by the Holy Spirit, we have to cultivate an awareness of His presence. We do this by understanding the dynamics of the language of the heart... because, the Spirit of God speaks to our hearts (John 16:13). 

The language of the heart is intuitive (its what we might call “right brained” perception). It resonates and is illuminated with words, music, art, imagination, dance... and the like. It’s a spiritual language that is transmitted through our Five Spiritual Senses.

In the same way that we have five natural senses, the ability to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel, we actually have Five Spiritual Senses… with corresponding spiritual capacities to perceive.

Jesus said that God is seeking after encounters with man (men and women). But He said that, because God is Spirit, we must worship (encounter) Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). And, the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians, in his letter to the Ephesians... he prayed that they would “know” (encounter) God, through the portal of having the eyes of their hearts enlightened (Eph. 1:18).

Let me illustrate this dynamic of activating our Five Spiritual Senses. Our Five Spiritual Senses are like an invisible doorway that opens to God’s very presence. What we need to do, is simply “turn the knob” and open the door to initiate an encounter with Him. We “turn the knob,” by asking God to illuminate (activate) our Five Spiritual Senses. In faith, we trust that He will do just that. When we “turn the knob,” if you could imagine this in your mind (in your heart)... when we turn the knob, He grabs the same knob on His side of the door, and pulls the door wide open. His Holy Spirit, living inside of us, will illuminate our capacity to perceive (sense) Him... through our Five Spiritual Senses. The result is that we become consciously aware of Him (at all times), and we meet with Him face-to-face, in “the secret place” (Matt. 6:6). 

God is longing to meet with us (John 4:23). He is knocking on the door of our hearts… wanting us to open up the door and have a meal with Him (Rev. 3:20).

In our teaching called Five Smooth Stones, using the story of David and Goliath as a backdrop, we lead you through five specific prayers to activate your Five Spiritual Senses.

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Prayer - The Strongest Offensive and Defensive Posture

In the midst of battle, most combatants would never think of dropping their weapons and folding their hands together. They would not want to kneel onto the ground on their knees, much less lie prostrate face down because it would put them in a position that they could not move quickly offensively or defensively. They also would never want to bow their head to the ground so that they could not see what is happening around them. The posture of prayer - folded hands, bended knees or prostrate, and bowed head - is the weakest defensive and offensive posture that a person can assume if you look at it from military theory. It is in this exact position, however, that the Christian assumes the greatest spiritual posture, offensively and defensively.

As Christians we are in a constant spiritual battle whether we realize it or not. Many times just because we are not at the front lines of the battle, we fail to remember that there is a tremendous war going on. We forget that we have an enemy who seeks to kill, destroy and disable us. We also forget that we are part of the Army of God and, therefore, He is our Commander-In-Chief. We neglect to follow His protocol and procedures laid out in the Scriptures. We fail to get our daily marching orders. Yet the war does not stop and the battles do not end because of our lack of awareness. The war constantly rages around us.


Eyes Closed - Faith Opened

Isn't it amazing that God asks us in the midst of this great war to do the exact opposite of what instinct and military theory dictate? Instinct and military theory would have us remain vigilant and always be aware of our surroundings and circumstances. It would also ensure that we were in a position to have the optimum range of vision. God, however, says that we are not to put our beliefs in what we see but, rather, we are to trust in what He says; therefore, we are not to focus on what we see around us.

The Christian has to follow God's Laws found in the Scriptures. The Bible is our military protocol handbook. It is also our policy and procedures guide. We must follow the Scriptures. They tell us that we must have faith in God. We must not look at the way things are now by using our natural eyes; we must look through our spiritual eyes with faith. This is what is means in the Bible when it says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (1)

Does God really expect us to take our eyes off the battlefield? Yes, He does. He expects us to keep our eyes upon Him and not on our problems, circumstances or battles. The psalmist understood this concept and applied it to his own life. This is why he sang, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. (2)

The key during battle is not to worry about what the enemy is doing or how the battle is being waged. It is to keep our eyes upon God and trust Him. It is only through faith in God that we can keep our eyes upon Him during the battle. When we close our eyes in prayer, we acknowledge our faith in God regardless of our surroundings.

God - Our Weapon

The natural position of prayer is with folded hands. One hand clasping the other, not holding onto our weapons. Surely though God does not expect us to drop our weapons during the battle though. Right? Without our weapons, how can we defend ourselves?

We cannot defend ourselves against the enemy though. We are too weak against our strong adversary. It is only through God that we can conquer our enemy. As it says in Psalms 18:17, He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. This is why the Scriptures tell us not to trust in our carnal weapons: For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. (3) As the psalmist stated more succinctly, Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. (4)

We have to understand that we cannot defend ourselves. We cannot defeat the devil with our own weapons. We must depend upon God and His strength. Then we can learn the lesson that life experiences taught David: But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. (5)


Prostrate Before God - Not Your Enemy

A warrior wants to remain on his toes. He wants to be able to move quickly in any direction. He often will remain on his toes by standing upright or by squatting. Both of these positions facilitate movement more so than other postures. If a warrior cannot respond quickly, he may not be successful offensively or defensively.

The hardest thing for a Christian to do is to lie prostrate before God. This requires the most discipline and trust. If you lay down your weapon, it is easy to pick it back up if the need arises. If you close your eyes, you can still remain somewhat alert by listening very closely and you can open your eyes very quickly if you want to do so. It is much harder to rise from a prostrate position though. You cannot react as quickly to things when you are lying prone on the floor. It is harder to grab your weapon. It is harder to see things even if your eyes are open. It is much more difficult - but not impossible. It is the truest form of faith in God.

Are you willing to lie prone on the floor? Will you voluntarily put yourself into a position that allows the least range of motion and also impairs your vision? If so, then you are certain to discover the Truth in Psalms 91:

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 

Next time you feel the battle closing in around you, remember that the position of prayer IS the most effective posture offensively and defensively.

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Opening your spiritual senses 2

8. SPIRITUAL TOUCH INWARD

Spiritual touch inward is the complex of sensations of how you feel you are in a spiritual sense. It is a very important sense as the condition of your spirit body is felt by you inside of your physical body, but what is felt is not just the physical condition but especially the spiritual condition.

Sometimes you can feel ill or sick although there is no external reason for it. When you had to deal with people in evil spirit for some time, your own spiritual body becomes sick and this you feel through your spiritual touch directed inward.

9. SPIRITUAL SMELL OUTWARD

Some people smell good and others stink. Probably you have the same experience as i had many times.
Almost always that smell is a result of the spiritual condition of that person. Ugly spiritual beings stink while good people smell nice.

EXERCISE 9. Train your spiritual smell by concentrating on it what you smell when you come in different places. Make yourself aware that when you come into a house, you can smell the spiritual atmosphere there, as you can smell the spirit of a person. Every being and every thing has a spiritual smell.

You also sometimes can smell the presence of spirits. It is a matter of concentration and making effort to develop your spiritual sense of smell.


10. SPIRITUAL SMELL INWARD

The spiritual smell directed inward is again a spiritual organ which is useful to detect certain illnesses or in general to determine the condition of yourself as spirit being.

11. SPIRITUAL AWARENESS OUTWARD

The mind senses expressions of other minds. Like the body can observe other bodies and entities of creation through five senses, so the mind can sense what is manifested on the level of the mind. When this concerns actions of other minds, then that awareness is directed outward. In this chapter we speak about spiritual senses, so we will try to understand what spiritual awareness is and how we can develop this.
The body does not only sense other bodies, but also senses phenomena on the level of creation. Likewise, the mind does not only sense activities of the mind but can also be aware of expressions of bodies. However, this is only possible when a mind is united with a body. The senses of the body pick up signs and because the mind lives in the body, the mind becomes aware of these signs.

The mind is also able to note or to be aware of the impulses coming from the own heart, but the mind cannot detect what goes on in other hearts. Only when those hearts express in mind phenomena, then the mind can again become aware of that. When the mind is aware of the expressions of the own heart, we call this awareness directed inwards.

From which directions can the mind sense something? First of all expressions on mind level that come from outside the own self. But when a stone hits your body, your mind also becomes aware of the pain in your body. This also is awareness of what comes from outside. The mind actually senses what happens in the own body.

The mind can also sense what comes from the own heart. The heart expresses into the mind and this again is felt in the body. For instance, when you suddenly feel a strong love for someone, then this affects your mind but also your body. The mind’s observations of this complex of phenomena is all awareness directed inward. This can also be called self-consciousness. In the following paragraph we will speak about this more.

Awareness of spiritual phenomena from outside of an individual, which is shortly called spiritual awareness outward, is called Bewustsein in German language, while awareness of spiritual phenomena inside of a person is called Selbstbewustsein.

Important to know about spiritual awareness inward is that there basically are two lines through which sensations can become conscious to my mind: there are the sensations in my body which resulted from impressions from outside of my body which are felt by my mind, and there are the direct impressions transferred from another mind to my mind.
When i sense what happens in my body as a result from actions coming from the outside of my body then i sense something in myself, in my body. This, however, should not be called self-awareness or Selbtsbewustsein in strictest sense because the sensations were not caused by myself but by someone or something else. Nevertheless, the ability to be aware of such sensations in my body is the same ability as to be aware of sensations in my body resulting from causes within my own self.

The awareness of my mind is an awareness in which thoughts, feelings and plans are playing a major role. Strictly speaking, i first become aware of something with my mind. This results in feelings and thoughts and can lead immediately or intermediately to plans.

Awareness of my mind can be of spiritual phenomena which are either connected to physical entities or of spiritual phenomena solely occurring in spirit world. To influence or create in spirit world i need a high degree of awareness of my mind. Man is supposed to become creator in spirit world, in life after death of the physical self. To become creator in spirit world one needs to have developed spiritual awareness to the highest degree. My life after death will be extremely joyful when i am able to be creator in spirit world. God made spirit world as a place intended to be created by man as God’s Heavenly Kingdom. It is only when man learns to develop the spiritual sense of awareness during life on earth that man can create heaven after life on earth.

EXERCISE 10. First we shall try to train our awareness of what comes from the outside of myself but which is sensed in my own body. When a stone hits my body, then i feel not only physical pain but also spiritual pain. The physical impact on my physical body depends on how hard the stone hits me and where. But the spiritual pain is depending on the reason why the stone hits me. If i myself throw a stone into the air and accidentally that stone drops on my head, then there probably is not much spiritual pain (unless i unconsciously committed an act of self-infliction). But when someone who really hates me throws a stone at me, then that stone could cause a serious injury to my spirit body. It is only by making effort to make myself aware of what happens to me in such a case that i can elevate my awareness of such phenomena. You must take time to pray and meditate about all what happens to your body to find out what is the spiritual meaning behind it. By analyzing the sensations inside of your spirit body, you train the awareness of your spiritual mind.

Important to know is that our spirit bodies are also affected by spiritual actions of other people, who are either near to us or farther away. When someone really hates you and in his mind curses you and even plans actions against you, then you can become aware of this through the sensations which occur in your spirit body.

Each action of the heart, mind and body does have effect. Such effects never get lost. When someone plans something against you, there is energy directed against you. Part of that energy will go into the plan and actions itself, but part of that energy comes directly to you. You are able to feel this if you make repeated efforts to learn to become aware of such things.

EXERCISE 11. As it is possible to become aware of how other people affect my spirit body through the activities of their minds, so i also can become directly aware of what other people think or feel. In this case i do not (just) sense this in my own body, but i directly read that person’s mind.
It is also difficult to give exercises to develop this quality in yourself. It is a matter of often making effort to read the minds of people around you. You must develop trust in your own ability. Try to read the mind of a person and check the facts and pray if this is right. Often the person later speaks out what he or she already thought. In that way you know if your readings were right or not.

Strong thoughts and feelings to which much energy is bound can be sensed much easier than weak expressions of another mind. When thoughts are confused, you can discover that the person has a confused mind, but you usually cannot find out the content of the thoughts.

EXERCISE 12. After you trained your awareness of direct expressions of other minds you can learn to detect thoughts, feelings and plans, and actions of spirit beings who have no physical bodies. When the spiritual senses of your body told you that a spirit is near to you, you can also sometimes find out what this spirit thinks or feels or plans.

12. SPIRITUAL AWARENESS INWARD

Already in paragraph 11 of this chapter something has been said about this ability. Spiritual awareness directed inward is awareness of the impulses of your own spirit heart and awareness of the effects of your own spirit mind on your spirit body. This spiritual awareness directed inward is also called self-awareness or self-consciousness or Selbstbewustsein.
In the beginning of this chapter this also has been called conscience. Conscience is the spiritual organ that tells us how to live right. Usually conscience is seen as restricted to our awareness of what is right and wrong, but to see it like this is actually a too restricted view. God lives in my heart. My heart lives in my mind. My mind lives in my body. When i am united with God, then all what comes from God is good and i myself am entirely good. I automatically live right and therefore my mind is an original and good mind. My awareness of God living in myself and my awareness of my heart expressing in my mind and that again resulting in sensations and actions of my body is to be seen as one round and complete and united awareness of God living in me. That awareness is what is called conscience in the world.

Fallen people have made their own rules based on their own, often limited or false views on God. So fallen people created their own god which lives in their heart, mind and body. Sometimes people did revere Satan or other angels or spirits as god. Then such a false god lived more or less in their heart, mind and body. This led to the existence of a false or fallen conscience.

In this book we mainly speak about the original situation as intended to be so by God. Conscience is then a rather limited concept for what actually should be self-awareness or Selbstbewustsein. Self-awareness in this original meaning is nothing else than to be aware of God working and living in yourself.

EXERCISE 13. To train your self-awareness you should learn to make effort to distinguish between good and evil in yourself. There is no use in developing your self-awareness if you do not make effort to become a better human being.
Your conscience is divided in a heavenly part and a worldly part. The heavenly part is what is left of the original mind in yourself. The worldly part is actually an evil conscience. When you are convinced that what you did is right, but those actions were against God, this shows that there is false conscience in you.

To develop your original mind or your original awareness directed inward you should first of all make effort to get rid of all what is false in your mind, inside of yourself. This you do by centering yourself on God and living a life under God. In that way you can gradually root out the false conscience and you learn to develop your original spiritual awareness.

13. SPIRITUAL INTUITION (OUTWARD)

Intuition is the sense of the heart. When it is directed outward we call it intuition. When it is directed inward we call it divinity.
Just like it was the case with awareness, intuition can be intuition of what other hearts express and it can be intuition of the impressions that the own mind makes on the own heart.
Divinity is the effect that God has on the heart and also the effects of God on the mind. These effects are sensed with the heart.

When we speak about intuition and divinity, it becomes very difficult to distinguish between them. The heart is our most internal part of our being. The more that something is internal the less it is possible to distinguish between segments or partition. For example, the body has five main senses. Although these senses bring about a more or less united effect on our self, we can clearly distinguish between these senses.

In the mind we can still distinguish quite clearly between effects on the mind coming from the own self and from outside. Also the awareness can be sensed more as thoughts or more as feelings or more as plans.

But on the level of heart the sense becomes more and more diffuse. Love is experienced as positive and hatred as negative. But very often we do not know if our intuition about something came from God working in ourselves or from outside sources.

When i have an intuition about something this also must be distinguished from the level of feelings. Intuition is higher than feelings and emotions (feelings are seen more on the level of mind while emotions are sensed in the body).

Intuition is a sense of the heart and i sense the heart expressions of others. I can directly sense their heart expressions (for example whether a person loves me or hates me) and i also can sense the heart expressions of another as these expressions were having effect on my mind via the mind of the other.

Intuition does not always need to be true intuition. You can sense whether someone loves or hates you, but you cannot deduct from that intuition whether that love or hatred is good or evil. Only by centering your heart on God you can know whether your intuition is correct. Therefore, intuition should be completed with divinity in order that the intuition can be trusted.

EXERCISE 14. When you want to develop your intuition you should first of all develop your other spiritual senses. You also should develop your relation to God in order to be able to trust your intuition.

It is impossible to do exercises to develop your intuition. Intuition grows in you as you yourself grow spiritually. Your relation to God should become better and deeper. Then you must learn to trust your intuition.

14. SPIRITUAL DIVINITY (INWARD)

Divinity is the gift of your heart to be able to receive God’s guidance, revelations, love, directions immediately.
It is a gift that God sometimes grants to people in order to use such people to pass on God’s guidance to others. In that case such selected people, also called prophets, made a foundation to have this gift of divinity, but that divinity is often only there temporarily, as long as the revelations from God come. God elevates the sense of divinity in a prophet for the duration of the period that God needs to reveal something to the prophet.

When God uses you as prophet you should not think that you therefore reached the highest. God uses you as instrument to serve others. Many prophets misused their abilities and revelations and became evil and false prophets. A false prophet is someone who does as if he received revelations from God but in reality those revelations had another source.
In your personal life you should reach the level that God can always and ever steer you. That means that you should reach perfection under God.

Even then, God sometimes elevates your divinity in order to give special revelations.
Through your divinity you must check your intuition, your awareness and the senses of your body.

I cannot give you exercises for developing your divinity other than that you love God and learn to love God more.
All spiritual abilities lose their meaning when you as a person are not loving God and eventually become united with God. When you develop your spiritual abilities your purpose should always be to develop your relation with God and to be able to better perform your mission under God.

Opening your spiritual senses 1

We have the same spiritual senses as we have physical ones. We have physical eyes and spiritual eyes. We have physical ears and also spiritual ones. We have physical smell and taste and also spiritual smell and taste. Besides our physical touch we can touch and feel spiritually.

These are the two times five senses which are connected to the physical body and the spiritual body.

These senses’ characteristic is that they are directed outward. The 10 senses are directed to sense what is going on outside of the body.

Also the mind has a kind of sense. The physical mind senses on the level of physical mind and the spiritual mind on the level of spiritual mind. These senses are called physical awareness and spiritual awareness (in German language this would be called Bewustsein.)

Finally, there are the senses of the heart (physical body's center of love, not the organ 'heart.' The physical heart’s sense is called physical intuition and the spiritual heart’s sense spiritual intuition.

We have now 14 senses which are directed outward, 10 senses of the body, two senses of the mind and two of the heart. Of these senses, half is physical and half is spiritual. Seven of these senses therefore are spiritual senses and about these this chapter is explaining. (Note that what often is called “sixth sense” actually is the collection of all seven spiritual senses.)

There also are senses directed inward. These senses are basically of the same kind as the senses directed outward. For example, the body senses what happens outside of the body with 10 senses, but the body also senses the working of the own mind in the body. A thought or emotion of the mind causes a sensation in the body, and this sensation is felt with the senses of the body, but now the senses are directed inward. Some of the physical senses are limited in this respect, for example the physical eyes cannot look into the physical body but only at it, but the spiritual eyes can look into the spirit body.

The mind senses what is in the mind and which came from the heart with what is called conscience (in German language Gewissen). Conscience is the same as awareness but now the awareness is directed inward. Conscience could also be called self-awareness (self-consciousness or, in German language Selbstbewustsein). Also the conscience has two components, the spiritual conscience and the physical conscience.

The heart senses what is in God. It is through this sense that man can receive revelations directly from God and that man can feel God’s pain or happiness in certain situations. For this no word been used in the past. We shall call this man’s divinity. Also divinity of man has a physical and a spiritual aspect.

Summarizing: There are five senses of the body, there is a sense of the mind and there is a sense of the heart. These are altogether seven senses that each have a very different character. Each of these seven senses can be directed inward (into the person’s self) our outward (outside of the person’s self). That makes altogether 14 senses. As long as man lives in the physical world, these 14 senses have both a spiritual aspect and a physical aspect. This gives altogether 28 senses.

But when we disregard whether the senses are spiritual or physical and whether they are directed inward or outward, we distinguish seven senses of man with each a very different character:
1. Seeing
2. Hearing
3. Tasting
4. Smelling
5. Touching
6. Awareness
7. Intuition
How many spiritual senses do we have now?
1. Spiritual eyes outward
2. Spiritual eyes inward
3. Spiritual ears outward
4. Spiritual ears inward
5. Spiritual taste outward
6. Spiritual taste inward
7. Spiritual touch outward
8. Spiritual touch inward
9. Spiritual smell outward
10. Spiritual smell inward
11. Spiritual awareness (outward)
12. Spiritual conscience (inward)
13. Spiritual intuition (outward)
14. Spiritual divinity (inward)
In the remaining part of this chapter we shall come to understand more about these 14 spiritual senses and learn exercises for the development of our spiritual senses.

1. SPIRITUAL EYES OUTWARD

With my physical eyes i see the world around me. Later, when my physical body has died, i live in the spiritual world and then with my spiritual eyes i will be able to see around me just as well as i now do with my physical eyes in the physical world.

But as long as i live in the physical world it takes time and effort to learn to use my spiritual eyes.

The physical world is a world of condensed and visible energy, while the spiritual world is energy in an uncondensed form and it therefore is less visible.

Moreover, the more that my physical desires dominate my spiritual ones, the more that my desire pushes me to only see in the physical world.

When i cannot yet see with my spiritual eyes, there are two problems to be solved. The first problem is when your physical desires dominate your spiritual ones.

When person A drives around in a car, A might only see trucks all the time. This is because A likes trucks and therefore only sees trucks. Person B sees birds. B doesn’t care about trucks, but loves birds. Person C sees houses everywhere, because C is an architect and is interested in how all these houses were designed and built.

Your desire determines what you see. If your desire is for the physical only, you will only be able to see the physical.
EXERCISE 1. If you do not make your spiritual desires to be dominant over your physical ones, then you will never be able to develop your spiritual senses. This exercise is to help you to develop your desire for spiritual life.

Take some time daily to pray, meditate and think about the purpose of life. Specifically ask yourself about the purpose of physical and material life. Make yourself aware of who and what you are. Is it worthwhile to live like an animal or do you want to reach higher goals in life? The purpose of the exercise is to make yourself aware of the value of spiritual life. Try at least daily to come to some kind of insight in this respect.
This exercise alone can never make you a spiritually-oriented person. Only living a good life centered on God can really make you understand the value of spiritual life.

The second main problem is that you have a physical body with physical senses, and these physical senses tend to dominate your spiritual senses just by the fact of the character and the strength of these physical senses. When you try to look with your spiritual eyes, you cannot help that you also still see with your physical eyes. Your physical eyes receive an image of the physical situation, while your spiritual eyes simultaneously receive a picture of the spiritual situation. You actually get two pictures to see at once. The physical picture is strong and clear and is what you are used to, while the spiritual picture is weak and unclear and seems to be unrealistic.

Let me try to make clear with an example what this problem means. Suppose someone draws for you a picture of a person on piece of paper. You can clearly see this picture. Suppose that now another, clear picture of a landscape is drawn over the picture of the person. That landscape is drawn with strong and thick lines. Now all of a sudden you can clearly see the landscape but you find it hard to still discover the picture of the person.

Another example. Suppose there is lit one candle in a dark room. You can very well see the light of the candle. Now someone switches on the electrical light. Suddenly the whole room becomes clearly visible while the candle is just a small detail in the room.

Note that these are only examples to show you a little of the nature of the problem that the spiritual world is difficult to perceive as long as you are also using your physical body’s senses. For the rest, the two examples do not tell us anything meaningful about spirit world.

EXERCISE 2. We must get used to see the spiritual reality on top of the physical reality. Whatever we see in the physical world, there always is also something to be seen in the spiritual world. When you see a house in the physical world then there also is a house in the spiritual world. When you see a physical dog, there also is the spiritual dog. And so on.
We begin our practice with trying to see the spiritual atmosphere in a room. The spiritual atmosphere in a room is something which cannot only be seen, but it often is more felt or smelled. But here we focus on seeing the spiritual atmosphere.

First you must find a room of which you know that there is a good atmosphere. If you cannot find such a room, then you can also go to a beautiful place in nature, where it is clean, and which is not much cultivated by man. You also should find a room of which you know that there is a bad atmosphere.
The exercise is that you frequently visit these two places of which you know that the one has a relatively good atmosphere and the other a relatively low atmosphere. Maybe you could find such places on your daily trip to your work. Each time that you visit these places, you try to look through the physical visible place into the spiritual room. You must look at the room without consciously looking at what happens there physically. You look into the distance, beyond the physical images, and you ask yourself: What do i see more than with my physical eyes?

When you do this often you will begin to see a difference between the dark place and the good place. Now focus on this difference and ask yourself what exactly is the difference between what you see in those two places. Once you notice a difference, you have already seen something with your spiritual eyes, but you might not be so aware of that. Important is that you make yourself aware of the fact that you dó see with your spiritual eyes, you only didn’t realize it so well. Every person sees with spiritual eyes, but most people haven’t been trained to know that they do this. You do have spiritual eyes and with these spiritual eyes you do see. You only are not yet aware of this, and therefore you think you didn’t see spiritually.

Continue to do this exercise daily and focus on the difference. Make yourself clear what exactly is the difference between these two spaces. You focus on seeing the atmosphere, and you see something then. What you see is already a spiritual phenomenon. Bit by bit you will see that in the good place there is a light atmosphere which looks bright and clear. In the dark place it is literally dark and smoggy.

EXERCISE 3. The next exercise is that you expand your efforts to seeing the spirit of people. Usually you know people who often are in a good mood, and you also know people who give you a bad feeling when you meet them. Although it is hard to know always when a person is in good spirit or not when you didn’t ask God or when you yourself are in bad spirit, but still, deep in your heart you know when someone is more okay or less okay.

Based on other spiritual senses you know if a person is in relatively good spirit or in relatively bad spirit. You must now look at the spirit of these people. Again, while you look, you must not clearly look at their physical appearance. Try to look through the person, as if you look far in the distance. At the moment that you do not anymore see the physical appearance clearly, you will still see something. What you then see is the beginning of spiritual seeing.

You will find a difference between the sight of the low-spirited person and that of the high-spirited person. You should focus on that difference. Think and meditate about that difference. Make yourself very clear what differences you have seen, and that those differences are differences in what you spiritually saw and not just contrasts in the physical appearances.
EXERCISE 4. Condition yourself to see the spiritual appearance behind each physical person, animal, plant or object. To develop your spiritual senses you must make effort over a long time, and it also needs high concentration each time that you want to see spiritually. It does never go without making effort over time and each time and again.

When you go through a street, try to see the spirit of the homes. You must always do this in prayer centered on God, because your spiritual senses only open in a good way if God allows it. So if your attitude is against God, God will not open your spiritual senses.

When you receive a letter, then look at the letter before opening the envelope and try to see spiritually if the content of the letter is good or evil.

The exercises are near endless, and in order to develop your spiritual eyes you must practice always and ever, day in day out.

EXERCISE 5. Until now you have practiced to use your spiritual eyes to see the spiritual aspects of physical beings and objects. It is more difficult to see spiritual beings and realities that are not expressed in a physical body.

We can see spirits and angels and sometimes also spiritual realities beyond the physical earth. But you cannot see a spirit if that spirit is not there with you or near you. You cannot see what is not there. So, depending on whether you can see a spirit is whether that spirit is near to you.

Furthermore, there are many spirits who are almost invisible even in spirit world. Such spirits lived such a low life that their spirits are practically non-existing. Such spirits you can almost not see, even if your spiritual eyes are developed to the highest degree.

Even a higher spirit is only visible if that spirit expresses him- or herself. When spirits are emotional or highly motivated to express themselves in a situation, they become visible to our spiritual eyes.

To learn to see spirits, you should develop your relation to God. When God tells you that a certain spirit is there, you can make effort to see that spirit. The spirit appears to your eyes like the spiritual aspects of physical beings and objects did.

2. SPIRITUAL EYES INWARD

As you can look with your spiritual eyes to see spiritual beings and objects and phenomena, you also can look with your spiritual eyes into your own body. This is a special ability which one can develop for example in order to discover diseases or disorders in the own body.

For now this ability is not of so much significance, so no exercises are given for this.

3. SPIRITUAL EARS OUTWARD

Just like for any visible entity in the physical world there is a spiritual aspect which can be seen, so for any physically audible entity one could hear a spiritual component.
In the sounds of all which we hear around us there is audible with our spiritual ears what kind of spirit is connected to the sound.

For example, when someone is angry, that anger shows a certain quality of the spirit self. When an angry person speaks, his or her speaking will be expressing that anger not only in a physically audible medium but also through a spiritually audible expression.

Of course, the physical components of sounds can never be seen apart from the spiritual ones.

Computer-made sounds can be made to sound like real, human-operated instruments, but a computer cannot put a spiritual component into that sound, other than the spirit expressions that come from the energy of the computer itself. Therefore, computer sounds usually cannot move our hearts. These sounds lack the spiritual aspect through which love and emotion can be expressed much more fully than is possible with just physical sound.

Physical sounds have impact on the physical world. Loud physical sounds can make buildings vibrate or deafen our physical ears.

Spiritual sounds have impact on the spiritual world. Spiritual sounds do not have direct effect on the physical world.

Spiritual sounds have direct effects only on the spiritual world.
EXERCISE 6. Concentrate on hearing the spiritual component of each sound that you hear. For instance, when you hear sounds made by a person, try to feel in those sounds in what kind of mood the person is. If someone angrily slams a door, the physical sound already tells you much, although it also could be that a draught slammed that door.

But in the sounds made by a person we can hear in what kind of spirit that person is. It is just a matter of making effort to discover more and more about people in that way. Make yourself aware that what you hear is spiritual and that now you are using your spiritual ears.

Train yourself to listen to music and to find out about the spiritual atmosphere in which the concert was given by focusing on the spiritual component of that music.
Listen to the sounds of nature and that of the weather. Even the winds have a certain spirit of which you can become aware by listening to it.

There also sound in the regions of spirit world that are not connected to a physical aspect. These solely spiritual sounds can be made by spirits. When you have become aware of the presence of a spirit, you can open your spiritual ears to hear what the spirit tells. You can ask that spirit a question and sometimes the spirit answers you. The more energy the spirit person puts into what he or she says, the better you can hear it. Be aware that commonly spirits are not better or worse than physical people. They are just people and they often may know less than you do. Never fall on your knees because you hear spirits speaking, because after that you will arrogantly and mistakenly put yourself high above the people around you.

4. SPIRITUAL EARS INWARD

Just like you can see things inside of your own spirit body, you also can listen to what happens in your own spirit body. Also this ability is not something which we practice here.

5. SPIRITUAL TASTE OUTWARD

Each of the senses of the body has its own special use and purpose. With our eyes we look around and all of us are very dependent of our sight. But there exist people who are very focused on their hearing, sometimes because they are blind or because they are just very much centered on that. A painter will have trained his ability to see while a musician trained the ability to hear.

The taste is mostly connected to food.

When we make food, it is extremely important how this food is prepared spiritually. I myself have often experienced to get dead-sick from eating a little food which was prepared with a bad spirit. The sickness then is sickness of the spirit body.
I could write a whole book about the topic of how to spiritually prepare good food, beginning with cultivating the food in a garden to harvesting to preparing it in the kitchen. It is a big and important topic.

With our spiritual eyes we can see if food has a good spirit or a bad one. But this demands much experience added to much concentration at the moment of looking.

The spiritual sense of taste is necessary for us to guarantee that we only eat good food. Food that was prepared with a good heart will have a good effect on our spiritual condition and health. Food that was prepared with a bad heart will have a bad effect on our spiritual condition and health.

The higher is your standard for spiritual life, the more you will be affected by the spiritual component of food. When your standard in spiritual life is very low then it doesn’t matter very much what kind of food you eat, as long as that food is in order physically.

To simplify it: food can be prepared having good spiritual value or bad spiritual value or no spiritual value. Food with good spiritual value can only be prepared by people having a high spiritual standard using food components that also have been cultivated and treated well. Food with bad spiritual value can be prepared by someone in an evil spirit, or there have been used ingredients with low spiritual value. There also is much food that has almost no spiritual value. It is spiritually empty food. When you eat it, it only fills your physical stomach while your spiritual body still is hungry after eating. Such kind of food without having spiritual value is usually made in factories where machines do much of the work or it is prepared by people who have a very businesslike attitude. Most quick-food restaurants serve such kind of food. Yet, such food is still to be preferred above food with a bad spiritual value.

EXERCISE 7. You should become critical about the food you eat. Of course, your physical food should be of good quality, but as you improve the quality of your own spiritual life, you also should learn to eat food with good spiritual quality.
Whenever you eat, always make effort to discover what spiritual value that food has. If you are sure that the food has a bad spiritual value, don’t eat it.

Try to taste the spiritual emptiness of food from fast-food restaurants.

Prepare a piece of bread, put it in a plastic bag and then for one hour on a street. Physically the food has not changed, but now taste how that food tastes spiritually! If you are not too far down as a spiritual person, you only need to do this exercise once in your life…

6. SPIRITUAL TASTE INWARD

With your spiritual taste directed inward you can taste in your mouth in what spiritual condition your own body is. You can also taste the effect of certain thoughts on your body. Good thoughts give a good taste but bad thoughts and feelings give you a bad taste in your mouth.

7. SPIRITUAL TOUCH OUTWARD

With your physical touch you feel the wind and the shining of the sun. You feel warmth and coldness.

Your spiritual touch does the same but it feels only spiritual contact.

When someone touches you, you can sense what is behind that touch. The physical contact tells you something about the one who touches you. If someone gives you a soft hand, it could tell you about a weak character, but it could also be that the person has an illness in the muscles of the hand. The spiritual contact tells you clearly about the spiritual reality of the person who shakes hands with you.

Maybe you have the experience that when you met a person you suddenly felt cold. Did you realize that this feeling of coldness is a spiritual experience?

When you come into a room or house with a low spirit, or you touch things used by someone with a low spirit, you will feel like getting dirty. Take such experiences very seriously, because your spiritual skin warns you that spiritual dirt is all around you. That spiritual dirt first touches your skin, but if you are not careful, it will enter your spirit body and make you ill.

EXERCISE 8. It is difficult to give exercises to develop your spiritual senses as living with spiritual awareness is something that must be learned in lifelong daily and even hourly experiences. To develop your spiritual sense of touch you basically must do the same as what you did to practice the other senses. Find situations in which you know that there is a bad spiritual atmosphere. Train yourself to experience how that feels on your spiritual skin. Find situations in which there is a good spiritual atmosphere. Train yourself to experience how that feels. Then make yourself aware of the differences between contacts that made you feel good and contacts that made you feel bad.

Do also train yourself to detect spiritual touching on your skin from the presence of a spirit who comes near to you.

Christ Will Not Break the Bruised Reed 6

Christ's Wise Government

The second conclusion from the final part of the text is that Christ's government in his church and in his children is a wise and well ordered government because it is called judgment, and judgment is the life and soul of wisdom. Of this conclusion there are two branches: first, that the spiritual government of Christ in us is joined with judgment and wisdom, and secondly, wherever true spiritual wisdom and judgment are, there likewise the Spirit of Christ has brought in his gracious government.

JUDGMENT AND WISDOM

As to the first, a well guided life by the rules of Christ stands with the strongest and highest reason of all; and therefore holy men are called `wisdom's children' (Luke 7:35), and are able to justify, both by reason and experience, all the ways of wisdom. Opposite courses are folly and madness. Hereupon Paul says that `he that is spiritual judgeth all things' (1 Cor. 2:15) that appertain to him, and is judged of none that are of an inferior rank, because they lack spiritual light and sight to judge. Yet this sort of men will judge and `speak evil of the things that they understand not' (2 Pet. 2:12); they step from ignorance to prejudice and rash censure, without taking right judgment in their way, and therefore their judgment comes to nothing. But the judgment of a spiritual man, so far as he is spiritual, shall stand, because it is agreeable to the nature of things. As things are in themselves, so they are in his judgment. As God is in himself infinite in goodness and majesty, so he is to him. He ascribes to God in his heart his divinity and all his excellencies. As Christ is in himself the only Mediator, and all in all in the church (Col. 3:11), so he is to him, by making Christ so in his heart. As all things are dung in comparison with Christ (Phil. 3:8), so they are to Paul, a sanctified man. As the very worst thing in religion, `the reproach of Christ', is better than `the pleasures of sin for a season' (Heb. 11:25 26), so it is to Moses, a man of a right esteem. As one day in the courts of God is better than a thousand elsewhere (Psa. 84:10), so it is to David, a man of a reformed judgment. There is a conformity of a good man's judgment to things as they are in themselves, and according to the difference or agreement put by God in things, so does his judgment differ or agree.

Truth is truth, and error, error, and that which is unlawful is unlawful, whether men think so or not. God has put an eternal difference between light and darkness, good and ill, which no creature's conceit can alter; and therefore no man's judgment is the measure of things further than it agrees to truth stamped upon things themselves by God. For this reason, because a wise man's judgment agrees to the truth of things, a wise man may in some sense be said to be the measure of things, and the judgment of one holy wise man to be preferred before a thousand others. Such men usually are immovable as the sun in its course, because they think, and speak and live by rule. A Joshua and his house will serve God (josh. 24:15), whatsoever others do, and will run a course contrary to the world, because their judgments lead them a contrary way. Hence it is that Satan has a spite at the eye of the soul, the judgment, to put it out by ignorance and false reason, for he cannot rule in any until either he has taken away or perverted judgment. He is a prince of darkness, and rules in darkness of the understanding. Therefore he must first be cast out of the understanding by the prevailing of truth and planting of it in the soul. Those, therefore, that are enemies of knowledge help Satan and antichrist, whose kingdom, like Satan's, is a kingdom of darkness, to erect their throne. Hence it is promised by Christ, that the Holy Ghost shall convince the world of righteousness or judgment (John 16:8); that is, that he is resolved to set up a throne of government, because the great lord of misrule, Satan, `the prince of this world', is judged by the gospel, and the Spirit accompanying it. His impostures are discovered, his enterprises laid open. Therefore when the gospel was spread the oracles ceased, Satan fell from heaven like lightning (Luke 10:18). Men were translated out of his kingdom into Christ's. Where prevailing is by lies, discovery is victory: `they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men' (2 Tim. 3:9). So that manifestation of error gives a stop to it, for none will willingly be deceived. Let truth have full scope without check or restraint, and let Satan and his instruments do their worst, they shall not prevail, as Jerome says of the Pelagians in his time: `The discovery of your opinions is the vanquishing of them, your blasphemies appear at the first blush."

THE NEED FOR HEAVENLY LIGHT

Hence we learn the necessity that the understanding should be grounded in knowledge which is above nature

1 Jerome (c.347 419) in his Epistle to Ctesiphon.

for a well ordered Christian life. There must be light to discover an end beyond nature, because of which we are Christians, and a rule suitable to direct to that end, which is the will of God in Christ, discovering his good pleasure toward us, and our duty towards him. And in virtue of this discovery we do all that we do which may in any way further what we reckon to be true. The eye must first be single, and then the whole body and frame of our conduct will be light (Matt. 6:22); otherwise both we and our course of life are nothing but darkness. The whole conduct of a Christian is nothing else but knowledge reduced to will, affection and practice. If the digestion of food in the stomach is not good, the working of the liver cannot be good; so if there is error in the judgment it mars the whole of practice, as an error in the foundation does a building. God will have no blind sacrifices, no unreasonable services (Isa. 1:13), but will have us to love him with all our mind (Rom. 12:2), that is, with our understanding part, as well as with all our hearts (Luke 10:27), that is, the feeling part of the soul.

This ordering of Christ's government by judgment is agreeable to the soul, and God delights to preserve the manner of working peculiar to man, that is, to do what he does out of judgment. As grace supposes nature, as founded upon it, so the frame of grace preserves the frame of nature in man. And, therefore Christ brings about all that is good in the soul through judgment, and that so sweetly that many, by a dangerous error, think that that good which is in them and issues from them is from themselves, and not from the powerful work of grace. So it is in evil, where the devil so subtly leads us according to the stream of our own nature that men think that Satan had no hand in their sin; but here a mistake is with little peril, because we are evil of ourselves, and the devil only promotes ill he finds in us. But there are no seeds of supernatural goodness at all in us. God finds nothing in us but enmity, only he has engraved in our nature an inclination in general to that which we judge to be good. Now when he clearly reveals what is good in particular, we are attracted to it; and when he shows us convincingly what is evil we abhor it as freely as we embraced it before.

From this we may know whether we work as we should do or not. That is, when we do what we do out of inward principles, when we do not choose what is good only because we were so brought up, or because such and such whom we respect do so, or because we will maintain a side, so making religion a faction; but out of judgment, when what we do that is good we first judge in ourselves so to be; and what we abstain from that is ill we first judge to be ill from an inward judgment. A sound Christian, as he enjoys the better part, so has he first made choice of it with Mary (Luke 10:42). He establishes every purpose by counsel (Prov. 20:18). God, indeed, uses carnal men to very good service, but without a thorough altering and conviction of their judgment. He works by them, but not in them. Therefore they do neither approve the good they do nor hate the evil they abstain from.

WHERE CHRIST'S GOVERNMENT IS SET UP

The second branch of this conclusion is that, wherever true wisdom and judgment are, there Christ has set up his government, because where wisdom is it directs us, not only to understand, but to order our ways aright. Where Christ as a prophet teaches by his Spirit, he likewise as a king subdues the heart by his Spirit to obedience to what is taught. This is that teaching which is promised of God, when not only the brain but the heart itself is taught; when men do not only know what they should do but are taught the very doing of it. They are not only taught that they should love, fear and obey, but they are taught love itself, and fear and obedience themselves. Christ sets up his throne in the very heart and alters its direction, so making his subjects good, together with teaching them to be good. Other princes can make good laws, but they cannot write them in their people's hearts (Jer. 31:33). This is Christ's prerogative: he infuses into his subjects his own Spirit. Upon him there does not only rest the spirit of wisdom and understanding, but likewise the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2). The knowledge which we have of him from himself is a transforming knowledge (2 Cor. 3:18). The same Spirit who enlightens the mind inspires gracious inclinations into the will and affections and infuses strength into the whole man. As a gracious man judges as he should, so he inclines to and does as he judges. His life is a commentary on his inward man. There is a sweet harmony among God's truth, his judgment, and his whole conversation.

HOW CHRIST GOVERNS US

The heart of a Christian is like Jerusalem when it was at its best, a city compact within itself (Psa. 122:3), where are set up the thrones of judgment (Psa. 122:5). Judgment should have a throne in the heart of every Christian. Not that judgment alone will work a change. There must be grace to alter the bent and sway of the will before it will yield to be wrought upon by the understanding. But God has so joined these together that whenever he savingly shines on the understanding he gives a soft and pliable heart. For without a work upon the heart by the Spirit of God it will follow its own inclination to that which it loves, whatever the judgment shall say to the contrary. There is no natural proportion between an unsanctified heart and a sanctified judgment. For the unaltered heart will not give leave to the judgment coldly and soberly to conclude what is best, as a sick man, whilst his feverish illness corrupts his taste, is rather desirous to please that than to hearken to what the physician may say. Judgment has no power over itself where the will is unsubdued, for the will and affections bribe it to give sentence for them, when any profit or pleasure shall come in competition with that which the judgment only shall in general think to be good. And therefore it is, for the most part, in the power of the heart what the understanding shall judge and determine in particular things. Where grace has subdued the heart, unruly passions do not cast such a mist before the understanding that it does not see in particular cases what is best. Base considerations, springing from self love, do not alter the case and bias the judgment into a contrary way; but that which is good in itself shall be good to us, although it crosses our particular worldly interests.

THE EFFECTS OF THIS IN PRACTICE

The right understanding of this has an influence on practice, which has drawn me to a more full explanation. This will teach us the right method of godliness: to begin with judgment, and then to beg of God, together with illumination, holy inclinations of our will and affections, that so a perfect government may be set up in our hearts, and that our knowledge may be `in all judgment' (Phil. 1:9), that is, with experience and feeling. When the judgment of Christ is set up in our judgments, and thence, by the Spirit of Christ, brought into our hearts, then it is in its proper place and throne. Until then, truth does us no good, but helps to condemn us. The life of a Christian is a regular life, and he that walks by the rule (Gal. 6:16) of the new creature, peace shall be upon him. He that despises God's way and loves to live at large, seeking all liberty to the flesh, shall die (Prov. 19:16). And it is made good by Paul, `If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die' (Rom. 8:13).

We learn likewise that men of an ill governed life have no true judgment. No wicked man can be a wise man. Without Christ's Spirit the soul is in confusion, without beauty and form, as all things were in the chaos before the creation. The whole soul is out of joint till it be set right again by him whose office is to `restore all things'. The baser part of the soul, which should be subject, rules all and subdues what little truth is in the understanding, holding it captive to base affections. And Satan by corruption gets all the holds of the soul, till Christ, stronger than he, comes and drives him out, taking possession of all the powers and parts of soul and body to be weapons of righteousness, to serve him. Then it becomes true, `New lords, new laws'. Christ as a new conqueror changes the fundamental laws of old Adam and establishes a government of his own.

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 Grace Shall Reign

The third conclusion from the final part of the text is that Christ's government will be victorious. Let us see the reasons for this.

WHY CHRIST'S KINGDOM MUST PREVAIL

1. Christ has conquered all in his own person first, and he is `over all, God blessed for ever' (Rom. 9:5), and therefore over sin, death, hell, Satan and the world. And, as he has overcome them in himself, so he overcomes them in our hearts and consciences. We commonly say that conscience makes a man kingly or contemptible, because it is planted in us to judge for God, either with us or against us. Now if natural conscience be so forcible, what will it be when, besides its own light, it has the light of divine truth put into it? It will undoubtedly prevail, either to make us hold up our heads with boldness or abase us beneath ourselves. If it subjects itself, by grace, to Christ's truth, then it boldly faces death, hell, judgment and all spiritual enemies, because then Christ sets up his kingdom in the conscience and makes it a kind of paradise.

The sharpest conflict which the soul has is between the conscience and God's justice. Now if the conscience, sprinkled with the blood of Christ, has prevailed over assaults fetched from the justice of God, now satisfied by Christ, it will prevail over all other opposition whatsoever.

2. We are to encounter accursed and damned enemies; therefore, if they begin to fall before the Spirit in us, they shall fall. If they rise up again, it is to have the greater fall.

3. The Spirit of truth, to whose tuition Christ has committed his church, and the truth of the Spirit, which is the scepter of Christ, abide forever; therefore the soul begotten by the immortal seed of the Spirit (1 Pet. 1:23), and this truth, must not only live for ever, but also prevail over all that oppose it, for both the Word and the Spirit are mighty in operation (Heb. 4:12). And, if the wicked spirit is never idle in those whom God has delivered up to him, we cannot think that the Holy Spirit will be idle in those whose leading and government is committed to him. No, as he dwells in them, so he will drive out all that rise up against him, until he is all in all.

What is spiritual is eternal. Truth is a beam of Christ's Spirit, both in itself and as it is engrafted into the soul. Therefore it, and the grace wrought by it, though little, will prevail. A little thing in the hand of a giant will do great things. A little faith strengthened by Christ will work wonders.

4. `Unto everyone that hath shall be given' (Matt. 25:29). The victory over corruption or temptation is a pledge of final victory. As Joshua said when he set his foot upon the five kings whom he conquered, `Thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies' (josh. 10:25). Heaven is ours already, only we strive till we have full possession.

5. Christ as king brings in a commanding light into the soul and bows the neck, and softens the iron sinew of the inner man; and where he begins to rule, he rules for ever, `of his kingdom there shall be no end' (Luke 1:33).

6. The purpose of Christ's coming was to destroy the works of the devil, both for us and in us; and the purpose of the resurrection was, as well as sealing to us the assurance of his victory, so also (1) to quicken our souls from death in sin; (2) to free our souls from such snares and sorrows of spiritual death as accompany the guilt of sin; (3) to raise them up more comfortable, as the sun breaks forth more gloriously out of a thick cloud; (4) to raise us out of particular slips and failings stronger; (5) to raise us out of all troublesome and dark conditions of this life; and (6) at length to raise our bodies out of the dust. For the same power that the Spirit showed in raising Christ, our Head, from the sorrows of death and the lowest degree of his abasement, that power, obtained by the death of Christ from God, now appeased by that sacrifice, the Spirit will show in the church, which is his body, and in every particular member thereof.

And this power is conveyed by faith, by which, after union with Christ in his estates both of humiliation and of exaltation, we see ourselves, not only dead with Christ, but risen and sitting together with him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Now we, apprehending ourselves to be dead and risen, and therefore victorious over all our enemies in our Head, and apprehending that his scope in all this is to conform us to himself, we are by this faith changed into his likeness (2 Cor. 3:18), and so become conquerors over all our spiritual enemies, as he is, by that power which we derive from him who is the storehouse of all spiritual strength for all his people. Christ at length will fulfill his purpose in us, and faith rests assured of it, and this assurance is very operative, stirring us up to join with Christ in his purposes.

And so, as to the church in general, by Christ it will have its victory. Christ is that little `stone cut out without hands' which broke in pieces the goodly image (Dan. 2:34), that is, all opposite government, until it became `a great mountain, and filled the whole earth' (Dan. 2:35). So that the stone that was cut out of the mountain becomes a mountain itself at length. Who art thou, then, O mountain, that think to stand up against this mountain? All shall lie flat and level before it. He will bring down all mountainous, high, exalted thoughts, and lay the pride of all flesh low. When chaff strives against the wind, or stubble against the fire, when the heel kicks against the pricks, when the potsherd strives with the potter, when man strives against God, it is easy to know on which side the victory will be. The winds may toss the ship wherein Christ is, but not overturn it. The waves may dash against the rock, but they only break themselves against it.

WHY THE ENEMY SEEMS VICTORIOUS

Objection: If this is so, why is it thus with the church of God, and with many a gracious Christian? The victory seems to be with the enemy.

To understand this, we should remember, firstly, that God's children usually, in their troubles, overcome by suffering. Here lambs overcome lions, and doves eagles, by suffering, that herein they may be conformable to Christ, who conquered most when he suffered most. Together with Christ's kingdom of patience there was a kingdom of power.

Secondly, this victory is by degrees, and therefore they are too hasty spirited that would conquer as soon as they strike the first stroke, and be at the end of their race at the first setting forth. The Israelites were sure of their victory in their journey to Canaan, yet they must fight it out. God would not have us quickly forget what cruel enemies Christ has overcome for us. `Slay them not, lest my people forget,' says the Psalmist (Psa. 59:11), so that, by the experience of that annoyance we have by them, we might be kept in fear to come under their power.

Thirdly, God often works by contraries: when he means to give victory, he will allow us to be foiled at first; when he means to comfort, he will terrify first; when he means to justify, he will condemn us first; when he means to make us glorious, he will abase us first. A Christian conquers, even when he' is conquered. When he is conquered by some sins, he gets victory over others more dangerous, such as spiritual pride and security.

Fourthly, Christ's work, both in the church and in the hearts of Christians, often goes backward so that it may go forward better. As seed rots in the ground in the winter time, but after comes up better, and the harder the winter the more flourishing the spring, so we learn to stand by falls, and get strength by weakness discovered  virtutis custos infirmitas (weakness is the keeper of virtue). We take deeper root by shaking. And, as torches flame brighter by moving, thus it pleases Christ, out of his freedom, in this manner to maintain his government in us. Let us herein labour to exercise our faith, so that it may answer Christ's way of dealing with us. When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again. Jacob, after he received a blow which made him lame, yet would not give over wrestling (Gen. 32:25) till he had obtained the blessing. So let us never give up, but, in our thoughts, knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies. Let us assure ourselves that God's grace, even in this imperfect state, is stronger than man's free will in the state of original perfection. It is founded now in Christ, who, as he is the author, so will he be the finisher, of our faith (Heb. 12:2). We are under a more gracious covenant.

What some say of rooted faith, fides radicata, that it continues, while weak faith may come to nothing, seems to be contradicted by this Scripture; for, as the strongest faith may be shaken, so the weakest, where truth is, is so far rooted that it will prevail. Weakness with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails. Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect his strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to him in whom our strength lies.

From this it follows that weakness may be consistent with the assurance of salvation. The disciples, notwithstanding all their weaknesses, are bidden to rejoice that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Failings, with conflict, in sanctification should not weaken the peace of our justification and assurance of salvation. It matters not so much what ill is in us, as what good; not what corruptions, but how we regard them; not what our particular failings are so much as what the thread and tenor of our lives are, for Christ's dislike of that which is amiss in us turns not to the hatred of our persons but to the victorious subduing of all our infirmities.

Some have, after conflict, wondered at the goodness of God that so little and such trembling faith should have upheld them in so great combats, when Satan had almost caught them. And, indeed, it is to be wondered at, how much a little grace will prevail with God for acceptance, and over our enemies for victory, if the heart is upright. Such is the goodness of our sweet Saviour that he delights still to show his strength in our weakness.

CONSOLATION FOR WEAK CHRISTIANS

The first use of this is for the great consolation of poor and weak Christians. Let them know that a spark from heaven, though kindled under greenwood that sobs and smokes, yet it will consume all at last. Love once kindled is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench it, and therefore it is called a vehement flame, or flame of God (Song of Sol. 8:6), kindled in the heart by the Holy Ghost. That little that is in us is fed with an everlasting spring. As the fire that came down from heaven in Elijah's time (1 Kings 18:38) licked up all the water, to show that it came from God, so will this fire consume all our corruption. No affliction without or corruption within shall quench it. In the morning, we often see clouds gather about the sun, as if they would hide it, but the sun overcomes them little by little, till it comes to its full strength. At first, fears and doubts hinder the breaking out of this fire, until at length it gets above them all, and Christ prevails. And then he upholds his own graces in us. Grace conquers us first, and we, by it, conquer all else; whether corruptions within us, or temptations from outside us.

The church of Christ, begotten by the Word of truth, has the doctrine of the apostles for her crown, and tramples the moon, that is, the world and all worldly things, `under her feet' (Rev. 12:1). Every one that is `born of God overcometh the world' (1 John 5:4). Faith, whereby especially Christ rules, sets the soul so high that it looks down on all other things as far below, as having represented to it, by the Spirit of Christ, riches, honor, beauty and pleasures of a higher nature. 


EVIDENCES OF CHRIST'S RULE IN US

Now, that we may not come short of the comfort intended, there are two things especially to be taken notice of by us: firstly, whether there is such a judgment or government set up in us to which this promise of victory is made, and secondly, how we are to conduct ourselves so that the judgment of Christ in us may indeed be victorious.

The evidences whereby we may come to know that Christ's judgment in us is such as will be victorious, are:

1. Being able from experience to justify all Christ's ways, let flesh and blood say what they can to the contrary, and willingly subscribing to that course which God has taken in Christ to bring us to heaven, still approving a further measure of grace than we have attained to, and projecting and planning for it. No other men can justify their courses, when their conscience is awakened.

2. Having reasons of religion the strongest reasons with us, prevailing more than reasons fetched from worldly policy.

3. Being so true to our ends and steadfast to our rule that no hopes or fears can sway us another way, but still we are enquiring what agrees with or differs from our rule.

4. Being able to `do nothing against the truth, but for the truth' (2 Cor. 13:8), the truth being dearer to us than our lives. Truth does not have this sovereignty in the heart of any carnal man.

5. If we had liberty to choose under whose government we would live, out of a delight in the inner man to Christ's government, making choice of him only to rule us before any other. This argues that we are like minded to Christ, a free and a willing people, and not compelled to Christ's service otherwise than by the sweet constraint of love. When we are so far satisfied with the government of Christ's Spirit that we are willing to resign up ourselves to him in all things, then his kingdom is come to us, and our wills are brought to his will. It is the bent of our wills that makes us good or ill.

6. Having a well ordered, uniform life, not consisting of fits and starts, shows a well ordered heart; as in a clock, when the hammer strikes well, and the hand of the dial points well, it is a sign that the wheels are rightly set.

7. When Christ's will comes into competition with any earthly loss or gain, yet then, in that particular case, having the heart willing to stoop to Christ is a true sign; for the truest trial of the power of grace is in particular cases which touch us most closely, for there our corruption makes the greatest head. When Christ came nearest to home with the young man in the gospel, he lost a disciple of him (Matt. 19. 22).

8. Being able to practice duties pleasing to Christ, though contrary to flesh and the course of the world, and being able to overcome ourselves in that evil to which our nature is prone and stands so much inclined, and which agrees to the ruling passion of the times, which others lie enthralled under, such as desire of revenge, hatred of enemies, private ends, etc., this shows that grace in us is above nature, heaven above earth, and will have the victory.

To make this clearer, and help us in our trial, we must know that there are three degrees of victory: first, when we resist though we are foiled; second, when grace gets the better, though with conflict; and third, when all corruption is perfectly subdued. When we have strength only to resist, we may know Christ's government in us will be victorious, because what is said of the devil is true of all our spiritual enemies, `Resist the devil, and he will flee from you' (James 4:7); because `Greater is he that is in you', who takes the part of his own grace, `than he that is in the world' (1 John 4:4). And if we may hope for victory from bare resistance, what may we not hope for when the Spirit has gained the upper hand?

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