DANGERS

What the Sanctified Soul Must Avoid -- The experience of sanctification has its peculiar dangers. The Psalmist speaks of a "terror by night," an "arrow that flieth by day," a "pestilence that walketh in darkness," and a "destruction that wasteth at noonday" (Psalm 91). Whether each of these is to be taken as having its spiritual counterpart may be a question for discussion. There is, however, a "noonday" experience of grace. "Where the flowers bloom for ever, and the sun is always bright." (See Isa. 58:10. )

This "noonday" experience has its "wasting destruction" or, in New Testament phraseology, the soul knowing the experience of life "in the heavenlies" finds the necessity for "wrestling, not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6:12). There are "wiles of the devil" against which he must learn to "stand" (Eph. 6:11) , for he now finds that life in the Holy Ghost is not a vacation but a vocation indeed. We are to beware "Lest any man should beguile us with enticing words" (Col. 2:4, 18): and to take heed "lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so our minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. . .. for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:3,14). It is the main business of the Satanic powers, often using human means as their instruments, to wreck the sanctified life.

If the temptation to sin does not avail, an attempt is frequently made along the line of religion by forcing the soul to unreasonable extremes, seeking to turn faith into presumption and faithfulness into fanaticism. An example of this is to be found in our Lord's wilderness temptation (see Matt. 4:1-11).

1. We must learn to distinguish between faith and presumption. In the early days of spiritual experience, especially when the soul is on the alert to catch and obey the slightest whispers of the Holy Ghost, there is need for care lest we should be found doing the unreasonable thing in the name of the Lord and inadvertently bringing discredit. Faith springs out of the abiding God life in a wholly yielded soul presumption arises from a mind not kept in perfect subjection to the Holy Ghost. Faith rests on the Word of God, the promises of which are prayed over and appropriated when divinely applied presumption opens the Bible at random, catches up some phrase wrenched from its context, and hastily applies it without divine authority. Faith initiates presumption imitates (see Ex. 14:21-29; Heb. 11:29). Faith leads to certain victory presumption always ends in defeat, disaster, disappointment and despair.

2. We must differentiate between faithfulness and fanaticism. Fanaticism is the twin brother of presumption. Into what wild extremes so many dear souls have gone! Satan can turn into a precipice of danger every solid rock of blessing on which you stand. Christian perfection is interpreted as sinless perfection. Divine healing is seen to mean the sinfulness of simple remedies and the denouncing of all medical science. The baptism with the Holy Spirit becomes associated with some spectacular spiritual gift which is the only authentic sign of its reception. The leading of the Spirit becomes a whimsical matter which runs into all kinds of excesses. It is possible to have "a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (see Rom. 10:2). We need "senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (see Heb. 5:12-14)