First, we must know that there is such a spiritual life to be lived by men on earth.  Nothing cuts the roots of the Christian life so much as unbelief.  People do not believe what God has said about what He is willing to do for His children.  Men do not believe that when God says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” He means it for every Christian.  And yet Paul wrote to the Ephesians each one:  “Be filled with the Spirit, and do not be drunk with wine.”  Just as little as you may be drunk with wine, so little may you live without being filled with the Spirit.  Now, if God means that for believers, the first thing that we need is to study, and to take home God’s Word, to our belief until our hearts are filled with the assurance that there is such a life possible which it is our duty to live; that we can be spiritual men.  God’s Word teaches us that God does not expect a man to live as he ought for one minute unless the Holy Spirit is in him to enable him to do it.

We do not want the Holy Spirit only when we go to preach, or when we have some special temptation of the devil to meet, or some great burden to bear; God says:  “My child can not live a right life unless he is guided by my Spirit every minute.”  That is the mark of the child of God:  “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”  In Romans V. we read:  “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us.”  That is to be the common, every-day experience of the believer, not his life at set times only.  Did ever a father or mother think, “For to-day I want my child to love me?” No, they expect the love every day.  And so God wants His child every moment to have a heart filled with love of the Spirit.  In the eyes of God, it is most unnatural to expect a man to love as he should if he is not filled with the Spirit.  Oh, let us believe a man can be a spiritual man.  Thank God, there is now the blessing waiting us.  “Be filled with the Spirit.”  “Be led by the Spirit.”  There is the blessing.  If you have to say, “Oh, God, I have not this blessing,” say it; but say also, “Lord, I know it is my duty, my solemn obligation to have it, for without it I can not live in perfect peace with Thee all the day; without it I can not glorify Thee, and do the work Thou wouldst have me do.”  This is our first step from carnal to spiritual,—­to recognize a spiritual life, a walk in the Spirit, is within our reach.  How can we ask God to guide us into spiritual life, if we have not a clear, confident conviction that there is such a life to be had?

Then comes the second step; a man must see the shame and guilt of his having lived such a life.  Some people admit there is a spiritual life to live, and that they have not lived it, and they are sorry for themselves, and pity themselves, and think, “How sad that I am too feeble for it!  How sad that God gives it to others, but has not given it to me!” They have great compassion upon themselves, instead of saying, “Alas! it has been our unfaithfulness, our unbelief, our disobedience, that has kept us from giving ourselves utterly to God.  We have to blush and to be ashamed before God that we do not live as spiritual men.”