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THE RENT VEIL EXPERIENCE
Very early in this volume, we likened our whole being -- spirit, soul and body -- to the ancient Jewish Temple of God's Habitation. God dwells in the Holy of Holies. A curtain separates it from the Holy Place. This curtain seems to enclose God's Glory and Presence within the Holy of Holies.. barring His Glory from the Holy Place. Men of that time, therefore can only know the things outside the curtain in the Holy Place. Apart from faith, they in their outward life, cannot sense the Presence of God.
This curtain, however, only exists temporarily. At the appointed hour, when the flesh of our Lord Jesus (which is the reality of the curtain Heb 10.20) was crucified on the cross, the curtain was rent from top to bottom. What separated the Holiest and the Holy Place was removed. God's aim was not to dwell permanently just in the Holy of Holies... Quite the contrary! He desired to extend His Presence to the Holy Place too. He was merely waiting for the Cross to complete its work, for it is the Cross alone which can rend the curtain.. and permit God's Glory to shine out from the Holiest Place.
God, today, would have His Own enjoy such a temple experience in their spirit and soul; if only the cross is allowed to perfect its work in them. As they ungrudgingly obey the Holy Spirit, the communion between the Holy and the Holiest grows deeper day by day, until they experience a great change. It is the cross which effects the rending of the curtain.. that is, the cross so functions in the life of the believer that he has a rent-curtain experience between his spirit and soul. His natural life renounces its independence and waits upon the spirit life for direction and supply.
This curtain was torn in two, "from top to bottom" (Mark 15.38) This has to be God's doing, not man's. When the work of the cross is finished, God tears the curtain. This cannot be achieved either by our labor.. or by our strength, not even by our entreaty. The moment the Cross accomplishes its task, at that moment, is the curtain rent. Let us therefore renew our consecration and offer ourselves to God without reservation. Let us be willing to have our soul life committed to death, in order that the Lord Who dwells in the Holiest may finish His Work. If He observes that the cross has wrought thoroughly enough in us, the Lord shall indeed integrate the Holiest and the Holy within us, just as He centuries ago rent the curtain by His Might so that His Holy Spirit might flow out from His Glorious Body.
Thus shall the Glory in the Shelter of the Most High overwhelm our daily sensuous life. All our walk and work in the Holy Place shall be sanctified in the Glory of the Holiest. Like our spirit, so shall our soul too be indwelt and regulated by the Holy Spirit of God. Our mind.. emotion.. and will shall be filled with Him. What we have maintained by faith in the spirit, we now also know and experience in the soul, nothing lacking and nothing lost. What a blessed life is this! "And the Glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the Glory of the Lord filled the Lord's House." 2 Chron.7.1-2 However lovely our activities of priestly service may have seemed in the Holy Place, they shall all cease in the Glorious Light of God. Henceforth, His Glory governs everything. No more is animal activity adored.
This brings us to the other, and equally significant aspect of the dividing of spirit and soul. Insofar as the soul's influence and control of the spirit is concerned, the work of the cross is to effect the division of the two... but insofar as the Spirit's filling and reigning is concerned, the Cross works towards the surrender of the soul's independence so that it may be reconciled completely to the Spirit. Believers should seek to experience oneness of Spirit and Soul. Were we to allow the cross and the Holy Spirit to operate thoroughly in us, we would discover that what the soul has relinquished is scarcely a fraction of what it ultimately gains! The dead has not come into fruition, the lost is now kept for eternal life. When our soul is brought under the reins of the spirit, it undergoes an immense change. Beforehand, it seems to be useless and lost to God, because it is employed for self and often moves independently; Afterwards, God gains our soul, though to man, it may appear to be crushed. We become as "those who have faith and keep their souls" (Heb 10.39)
This is much more profound than what we commonly term "saved" because it points especially to Life. Since we have learned not to walk by sensation and sight, we are now able to save our life by faith, into serving and Glorifying God.
"Receive with meekness, the implanted word, which is able to save your soul" (James 1.21) As God's Word is implanted, we receive its new nature into us and are thus enabled to bear fruit. We obtain the Life of the Word from the Word of Life. Although the organs of the soul still remain... these organs no longer function through its power; rather they operate by the Power of God's Word. This is the "salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1.9)
Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man
Spiritual Believers and the Soul
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