When God created man, and breathed into him His own Spirit, man became a living soul. The soul stood midway between the spirit [of man] and the body, and had either to yield to the spirit to be lifted up to God, or to the flesh and its lusts. In the Fall, man refused to listen to the spirit, and became a slave of the body. The spirit in man became utterly darkened.

In regeneration, it is the spirit that is quickened and born again from above. In the regenerative life, and in the fellowship with God, it is the spirit of man that has ever to yield itself to the Spirit of God.

The spirit is the deepest, inward part of the human being.

As we read in Psalm 51:6

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place

Or in Jeremiah 31:33

I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts

It is of this also that Isaiah 16:9 says:

My soul yearns for You in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for You.

The soul must sink down into the depths of the hidden spirit and call upon that spirit to stir itself to seek God.

God is Spirit, most holy and most glorious. He gave us a spirit with the one object of holding fellowship with Himself. Through sin that power has been darkened and well-nigh quenched. There is no way for its restoration but by presenting the soul in stillness before God for the working of His Holy Spirit in our spirit.

Deeper than our thoughts and feelings, God will—in our inward parts, in our spirits within us—teach us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks” (John 4:23b).

He Himself by the Holy Spirit will teach us this if we wait upon Him. In the quiet hour, be still before God, and yield yourself with your whole heart to believe in and receive the gentle working of His Spirit. And breathe out such words as these:

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Reference

Murray, Andrew, The Secret of Adoration. London: Marshall Morgan & Scott 1914.