Spirit: the domain and dominion of spirit - Chambers, Oswald

Chapter XIX – Spirit: the domain and dominion of spirit
Man’s Universe
Job 12:10
Natural nous
Bewildered nous
Spiritual nous

1. Spirit as soul-making power

(a) particular form (genesis 2:7; 6:17)

(b) personal form (numbers 16:22; 27:16; zechariah 12:1; isaiah 19:3; psalm 2:10)

2. Spirit in the flesh

(a) independent (1 corinthians 2:1214)

(b) dependent (psalm 32:2; 2 corinthians 7:1; james 3:15)

N. B. We deal here particularly with spirit in the natural man.

First of all we will deal with nous. As already stated, nous means responsible intelligence both in a natural man and a spiritual man. Jesus christ is the expression of the responsible intelligence of god. He is logos, the word of god incarnate. There is the same thing in man, that is, there is spirit.

Natural Nous

The moment when responsible intelligence begins in the natural life differs; some people never seem to reach it at all, they live as children and die as children, or more as simpletons than children. They have impulses and imaginations and fancies, but they never come to a responsible intelligence. A child is not responsible, but the statements of persons of mature intelligence are responsible; consequently we are judged by our words. It is quite true that there are times when we have to say, answer my meaning, not my words, but those times are exceptional. The things we express, the statements we make, and the thoughts we form, are all stamped with responsibility.

There is a capacity in man apart from the spirit of god to know that there is a god. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead (Romans 1:20). We are speaking of natural nous apart altogether from the work of grace. As soon as a man becomes responsibly intelligent, he comes to the conclusion that there must be responsible intelligence not less than his own behind everything there is, and god holds every man responsible for knowing that. . . . He that cometh to god must believe that he is (Hebrews 11:6).

The ordinance of god is placed in the natural make-up of a man, and when a man becomes responsibly intelligent he is able to discern a great many things, things which he calls justice and righteousness, and the apostle Paul states that the heathen are judged by conscience (see Romans 1:2021). We are getting very near the point where conscience becomes the responsible power working in a mans life. When we dealt with conscience, we called it the eye of .He soul, which looks out towards god, and how it records depends entirely upon the light thrown upon god. Nous, or responsible intelligence, which is nearly the same as conscience, discerns the ordinance of god written in mans spirit; therefore to say that men are not responsible for doing wrong is untrue to experience and to revelation. The bible says that a man knows by the way he is made that certain things are wrong, and as he obeys or disobeys the ordinance of god written in his spirit, he will be judged. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of god, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Hebrews 11:3). It is not a question of swallowing a revelation, but of understanding with responsible intelligence how the world was made. This is simply a fresh emphasis on what has been emphasised all through, viz. , the responsibility of those of us who are Christians in experience for being Christians in responsible intelligence. If we can form responsible intelligence as natural men, we must form it also as spiritual men. The bible does not only teach the way of salvation, but the way of spiritual sanity.

Bewildered Nous

In 2 Corinthians 11:3 Paul is referring to the devil beguiling eve through his subtlety, and so bewilder- ing her that she could not understand gods will or obey it, and he says, i fear lest by any means . . . Your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ; and in writing to the Galatians he says, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This confusion of the responsible intelligence takes place at the beginning of the christian life and people are in danger of becoming legal. I am afraid of you, lest i have bestowed upon you labour in vain, says paullest you become all wrong, because you are going back to the old legal notions and trying to make your- selves perfect in that way (Galatians 4:11). It is along these lines that the subtlety of Satan bewitches away from god a life that was coming under his dominion. Our lord alludes to the same thing when he says, the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, i. E. , bewilder you. No wonder the first law of a born- again soul is concentration. We hear a great deal about consecration, but not so much about concentration.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways ( James 1:8). A double-minded man is a switherer, that is the description of a bewildered soul, the responsible intelligence of the natural man pulling and the responsible intelligence of the spirit of Christ also pulling, and he does not know which way to take. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the lord. A man must decide whether he will be identified with the death of the lord Jesus christ, which will mean the turning out not only of the old man, but of the old responsible intelligence, the old bondage, the old legalism, the things which used to guide the life before, and the forming of a totally new mind. It works out in this way: in your practical life you come to a crisis where there are two distinct ways before you, one the way of ordinary, strong, moral, common sense and the other the way of waiting on god until the mind is formed which can understand his will. Any amount of backing will be given you for the first line, the backing of worldly people and of semi-christian people, but you will feel the warning, the drawing back of the spirit of god, and if you wait on god, study his word, and watch him at work in your circumstances, you will be brought to a decision along gods line, and your worldly backers and your semi-christian backers will fall away from you with disgust and say, it is absurd, you are getting fanatical.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). We are familiar with the carnal mind in the moral aspect, its enmity against god, its wrong longings and seekings; but it takes a good deal of courage to face the fact that the mind of the natural man is wrong in its responsible thinking, that is, it will give ver- dicts against what Jesus christ says; it will decide straightaway that his responsible intelligence is that of a madman, or the irresponsible intelligence of a mere dreamer. We are using the phrase carnally minded in this connection to mean what is called common sense, i. E. , the mature responsible intelligence of an unregenerate human being, and over and over again we find how this clashes with the teaching of Jesus before it harmonises with it. We are bridging now between the bewildered and the spiritual nous. When the holy spirit comes in it confuses a mans reasonable intelligence and turns his thinking upside down, and he gets thoroughly bewildered (cf. Mat- thew 10:34). We are not dealing with the carnal mind here in the deep moral sense, but with the responsible intelligence which sets itself against the spiritual understanding and refuses to be reconciled to it, in the same way that it may refuse to be reconciled to it morally; and until common sense becomes sanctified sense (not sanctified common sense, which is not a bible phrase, nor has it a bible meaning), and the responsible intelligence has been re-formed by the spirit of god, this antagonism will go on. When we begin to think along gods line, we come up with an amazing clash against certain things which we have accepted as being inalienable rights for everyone, because Jesus christs teaching works from another standpoint, and this clash brings confusion and bewilderment for a time, until we resolve to remove ourselves altogether from the old ways of looking at things and to look at everything from the standpoint of the mind of Christ.

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation (rv mg), not his spirit alone, but spirit, soul and body, and slowly the new creation is seen all through.

Spiritual Nous

For who hath known the mind of the lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

the great benediction of the grace of god is that those who seem to have no natural nous are enabled to construct nous in the spiritual realm by the spirit of god, and use it aright in the temple of the holy ghost. To begin with, a child has no responsible intelligence, and the same is true in the spiritual domain.

When we begin the spiritual life we have the spirit of Christ but not the mind of Christ. To have the mind of christ means much more than having his spirit, it means to have the responsible understanding of Christ. When we are born again, we find every now and then that the spirit of god within us is struggling to get us to understand as god understands, and we are very stupid in the way we mistake the things the spirit of god is trying to teach us; but when, in entire sanctification, the son of god is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), we understand with a responsible intelligence even as Jesus christ did; consequently we are held respon- sible for doing through our bodies all that we under- stand god wishes us to do. Jesus Christ spoke what he knew his father wished him to speak, and he spoke nothing else; we must do the same if we have the mind of christ. Jesus christ worked only those works which he knew were the exact expression of his father, my father worketh hitherto, and i work ( john 5:17). We must do the same. To form a spiritual nous means not only that the holy spirit energises our spirit but that we allow him to work out in a responsible intelligence in us. And we know that the son of god is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true . . . (1 john 5:20). The word understanding does not mean anything necroman- tic; it means that we understand with a responsible intelligence that which comes from god; and god holds us responsible for not knowing it. It is not a question of any uncanny spiritual influence, or of a flashing spiritual intuition, but of having the nous, our responsible intelligence, so obedient to the holy spirit that we can understand what is of god and what is not. In this way we begin to form a respon- sible spiritual intelligence, and we must take care not to grieve the spirit of god along these lines.

For this is the covenant that i will make, . . . Saith the lord; i will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and i will be to them a god, and they shall be to me a people (Hebrews 8:10). That embraces every thing a full, mature, understanding intelligence on the part of the people of god, not being at the mercy of spiritual impulses, driven about by every wind of doctrine, but becoming mature, vigorous minded people who not only understand what the will of god is, but who do it.

1. Spirit as soul-making power

We are dealing here particularly with spirit in the natural man.

Remember, the whole meaning of the soul is to express the spirit, and the struggle of spirit is to get itself expressed in the soul. In the natural life when an immature mind is trying to express itself, there are tremendous struggles and all kinds of physical exertions and efforts. It has no responsible intelligence, no vocabulary; when a child gets into tempers, it is often an attempt to express itself. When a young life is trying to express itself, it experiences exquisite suffering; music is run to, theatres are run to, literature is run to anything to try and get the power to express what is there in longing; and if a life goes on too long on these lines, it will never form a responsible intelligence, but will become most unpractical. The discipline of the machinery of life enables us to get the power to express what is in us. That is the value of language. There is a great difference in languages; for instance, take the language of the authorised version of the bible and the language we use to-day. The words of the bible express the inner soul; the words we use to-day are nearly all technical, borrowed from somewhere else, and our most modern words do not express the spirit at all, but cunningly cloak it over and give no expression.

This kind of phrase is often heard from a young person, oh, i don’t understand myself ; or, nobody understands me! Why, of course they don’t; but we are responsible for not having a responsible intelligence as to where we can be understood (see psalm 139). The meaning of education is not to pack in something alien, but the drawing out of what is in for the purpose of expression. One of the greatest benefits when a young life is trying to express itself is to have something to work at with the hands, to model in wax, to paint, or write, or dig, anything that will give an opportunity of expression.

If it is true in the natural life that the mind goes through all this turmoil in trying to express itself, it is just as true in the spiritual life. When the spirit of god comes into me the same kind of struggle goes on. The spirit of god tries to get me out of the natural ruts into line with him and to obey him so that he can express himself through my responsible intelligence. These are the throes and the growing pains of a life after being born again, and they go on until the mind of christ is formed, and the old carnal antagonism is no.

More. The value of a spiritual teacher is that he expresses for us what we have been trying to express for ourselves but could not. Whenever a person or a book expresses for us what we have been trying to express for ourselves, we feel unspeakably grateful, and in this way we learn how to express for ourselves. Tribulation will teach us how to express things, our circumstances will teach us, temptations of the devil will teach us, difficult things will teach us. All these things will develop the power of expression until we become responsible in expression of the spirit of god as Jesus Christ was the responsible expression of the mind of god almighty.

(a) Particular form

And the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (genesis 2:7; see 6:17)

The particular forms of nature, i. E. , rocks and trees, animals and men, are all the outcome of the breathing of the spirit of god. There is a true law of correspondence between the things which we see and the mind that is behind them. When we have in us the mind behind the things we see, we begin to under- stand how these things manifest that mind, but if we have not that mind we shall never understand them.

(b) Personal form

Let the lord , the god of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. (numbers 27:16; see 16:22; Zechariah 12:1; Isaiah 19:3; psalm 51:10)

These passages make it clear that man has a distinct responsibility of his own, that is, he can express the spirit of the prince of this world in a responsibly intelligent way, or he can express the spirit of god in a responsibly intelligent way. This is what we mean when we say a man shows soul in his writings or speaking, he shows soul in his prayers and in his manner of living; we mean that he has the power to express his spirit, the personal note comes out all the time. God is a person, and he expresses the peculiar stamp of his person in all that he creates. When we have the spirit of god and are forming a responsible intelligence spiritually, we begin to think gods thoughts after him and to see his meaning, not by our natural intelligence, but by the spirit of god.

(c) physical form

But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement. ( job 32:8; see genesis 7; Habakkuk 2:19; revelation 13:15; job 34:1415)

Our physical life is meant to express all that is in the spirit. The soul struggles in travail of birth until the zone of expression in the body is reached. Paul is stating just this idea when he says, my little children, of whom i travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you (Galatians 4:19). To begin with we have not our own body, but probably a body which is very much like that of our grandmother or grandfather, but every few years the physical form alters, and it alters into the shape of the ruling spirit. We may find a beautifully moulded face begin to take on a remarkably un-beautiful moral expression as it grows older, or we may find an ugly face begin to take on a remarkably beautiful moral expression. Sooner or later, through the turmoil in the soul, the physical life must express the ruling spirit. We grow exactly like our spirit. If that spirit is the spirit of man, we shall grow further and further away from the image of god; but if we have the spirit of god within, we shall grow more and more into the same image from glory to glory.

2. Spirit in the flesh

(a) Independent (1 Corinthians 2:1114)

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of god knoweth no man, but the spirit of god. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

The expression of the spirit is independent of the flesh to begin with, consequently there is a divorce between the spirit in a born-again person and the expression of the spirit in the life. Beware of saying there is no difference in the external life of a person who is born again and one who is sanctified. It is untrue to revelation and to experience alike; there is a tremendous difference. The spirit in a born-again person does not express itself in the flesh in the same degree that it does when the point of sanctification has been reached, because the body has not yet learned obedience to god. In the beginning the spirit of god works in independence of the flesh and conviction of sin is produced. When the spirit of god comes into a soul there is darkness and difficulty because he produces discernment of the wrong dis- position, and this discernment makes the spirit yearn and long after being made like god, and nothing and no one but god can comfort the soul that is born of the spirit. The only hope for that life is concentration on and obedience to the spirit of god.

(b) Dependent (psalm 32:2; 2 Corinthians 7:1; James 3:15)

Blessed is the man unto whom the lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. (psalm 32:2)

When the spirit of god comes into me, he does not express himself straightaway in my flesh; he works.

Independently of my flesh, and i am conscious of the divorce. I gain slow, sure, steady victories, but i am conscious of the turmoil. The soul is the birthplace of the new spirit, and the soul struggles while the spirit tries to express itself through the body. If i do not obey the spirit of god, my spirit will become enchained to my flesh and be absolutely dependent upon it, and the clamouring of the wrong mind through the avenues of the flesh will gradually crush and grieve the spirit of god. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of god (2 Corinthians 7:1). The spirit of god works independently in me to begin with, just as my natural spirit does, and if i do not obey the spirit of god the insistence of the flesh, of the carnal mind, will gradually defile everything he has been trying to do. When we are being brought into harmony with the spirit of god and are learning to form the mind of Christ the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; nevertheless we can, slowly and surely and victoriously, claim the whole territory for the spirit of god, until at entire sanctification, the only thing there is, is the spirit of god, who has enabled us to form the mind of christ, and now we can begin to manifest that growth in grace which will express the life of jesus in our mortal flesh.

(c) Death

For i know that in me (that is, in my flesh, ) dwell- eth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good i find not. (Romans 7:18; see 8:57)

Romans 8:6 (to be carnally minded is death) is very direct, and puts an end to all the absurd squabbles as to what is spiritual death. To be given over to an ordinary responsible intelligence which has not been re-formed by the spirit of god, is death, and that intelligence in its manifestation will develop further and further away from god, until a man can sink so low as to be perfectly happy without god. Psalm 73 describes this condition: there are no bands in their death. . . . They are not in trouble as other men. . . . Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. The extraordinary thing is that that kind of man is the only man that worldly people call alive! When a person has the spirit of god in him and is slowly manifesting the life of christ in his life, the world says he is half dead. They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot (1 peter 4:4). If any man be in christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Where are we with regard to this responsible spiritual intelligence? How many of us as Christians with a definite spiritual experience, realise that we have to be continually renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we are able to discern what the will of god is the thing which is good, and acceptable, and perfect? All the childish clamours, the being driven from pillar to post by every wind of doctrine, must cease, and the mature, sensible, strong, stable life begin. Nothing can upset that life, neither death, nor life, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature. Every power such a life comes up against, whether it be a material power or a human or a diabolical power, will be but another occasion for the forming of a deeper and more intelligent grasp of the mind of god. The only way we develop intel- ligence in the natural world is by coming in contact with things that are irrational and un-intelligent, and in the things of god we form the mind of Christ by subduing all to a spiritual understanding

Spirit: the domain and dominion of spirit - Chambers, Oswald

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