"The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
God has created natural affections, but how much self and idolatry come in! Self-will, too, and self-gratification -how awfully it comes in! That is soul, and not spirit. The Word of God comes in and knows how to divide between soul and spirit, what looks like the same thing, the very same affections, as far as man sees. What a mass of corruption! Can we have communion with God when self comes in? How powerless Christians are now-you, and I, and everyone. "I here is grace, blessed be God, but in a certain sense, how low we are! "We will give ourselves... to prayer," said some. All blessing comes from the immediateness of a man's life with God. There are rivers of living water. How are you to get them? "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink," and "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." A man must drink for himself first before there can be rivers, etc. In the time of the prophets they had a message, "Thus saith the Lord," and then they had to inquire the meaning of the prophecy; but with us, we ourselves drink first. We are so connected with Christ that we have it ourselves from Him before communicating it to others.