SPIRITUAL EXCELLENCE: FREEDOM IN THE SPIRIT

“Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty” (2 CORINTHIANS 3:17)

The essence of true religion is spontaneity, the sovereign moving of the Holy Spirit upon and in the free spirit of redeemed men. This has through the years of human history been the hallmark of spiritual excellency, the evidence of reality in a world of unreality.

 

When religion loses its sovereign character and becomes mere form this spontaneity is lost also, and in its place come precedent, propriety, system—and the file-card mentality!

 

Back of the file-card mentality is the belief that spirituality can be organized. Then is introduced into religion those ideas which never belong there—numbers, statistics, the law of averages and other such natural and human things. And creeping death always follows!

 

Now a file card is a very harmless little tool and a very useful one for some purposes. Its danger comes from the well-known human tendency to depend upon external helps in dealing with internal things.

 

Here’s how the file card works when it gets into the Christian life and begins to create mental habits: it divides the Bible into sections fitted to the days of the year and compels the Christian to read according to rule. No matter what the Holy Spirit may be trying to say to a man, still he goes on reading where the card tells him, dutifully checking it off each day. This can be a deadly snare, and often liable to quench the spontaneous operation of the Spirit!

 

 

  1. W. Tozer