Unbelief and a Soulish Life

Examine yourself. Do you have the power to command the spirit of unbelief to depart? When a work needs to be carried out in the church, unbelief arises very quickly. Everything that is done in the church is done for our common good. Yet people whine and complain because they want to hold onto their own life. Sisters are easily affected by unbelief and rea­soning, and they, in turn, influence the brothers. Many believe that to give attention to and support those who are weak is the highest form of love. Usually the result of giving into this is that the whole church loses its momentum. You who have re­sponsibility must be awake so you can set the light on the candlestick. Manifest sin is not the greatest danger for the church—that can easily be taken care of. The danger comes from soulish people who preach from a “good conscience” and believe they can discern and judge everyone and every­thing. Consequently, there is unrest, parties are formed and Satan gains power among unstable souls.

We often see this soulish life in newer churches. If they don’t find their life and purify themselves from soulishness and humanness, God has to stop them. And we too, must stop such activity. “But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer.” 2 Tim. 2:16-17.

Don’t just sit and listen to all sorts of things without dealing with them at some point. For example, many people can have a lot to say about other people that they think are too zealous. It is as though they think they are going to help the elder brother in his work. Everyone who wants to seek God must be given room. You can’t backbite other people just because you think other people are backbiting. Even among fellow ser­vants, you must not talk about people if you see that the con­versation will not improve the situation, because then you have become a backbiter. Many have greatly transgressed in this area. If someone is constantly talking about different cir­cumstances in the ministry, it is often a sign that they have little of God’s Word and revelation.

We must do everything with a clear goal in mind. This is how Johan O. Smith got power over unbelief and all soulish activity. If it is difficult for you to refrain from telling those nearest you something that has been told to you in confi­dence, then your ability to bear things is extremely limited. There should be a real sword against all of this. We can build people up when they have confidence in our ability to help them. Gossip and idle chatter breaks down confidence in the good and in those who speak the Word of God.

Do not ignore sin because the person concerned supports you as the leading brother. Do not allow things to live that actually should die, because then you will often begin attack­ing things that actually should live. There is no doubt that there are satanic forces that don’t want our work to succeed. Therefore, we must stand armed before the face of the Lord—before the battle begins—so that we are ready and not sur­prised on the day of battle. We must have weapons of righ­teousness in our right hand and in our left. Our heart’s posi­tion of faith must be, “Let come what may upon my way, I’ll give my life each day.” (New Songs #305.)

Johan O. Smith laid the foundation for life within the church and for Skjulte Skatter (Norwegian Hidden Treasures) as a wise master builder. If the foundation had not been cor­rectly laid, the building would have crumbled. He once spoke about laying a solid foundation. He said that when they were building a new fire station in the capital, it made a deep im­pression on his heart about how thorough the foundational work must be. A person must make things right that he has done wrong earlier in his life and do a thorough work to get a pure foundation if his building is to remain standing. There must be righteousness in money matters, and a person must be able to suffer injustice joyfully. A divine life is permeated by righteousness, from the foundation right through the en­tire building.

Wisdom is reasonable. Many strong builders have been extremely unreasonable with other people. In our relation­ships with our fellow men, we must take it to heart to be righ­teous to people. Otherwise we too, will face the “Inspector” on Patmos, He who has eyes like flames of fire.

We will give account for every single day—without a spirit of fear. One person will shine as the moon, others as the stars and the sun. Everything will be absolutely righteous accord­ing to the effort a person has made and according to the faith­fulness he has demonstrated toward the promptings of God. In the tents of the righteous, songs of praise resound in the middle of the night. All complaining and doubt have been si­lenced, and there is only joy and blessing. That is the founda­tion we have been built upon. Now we must take heed how we build. We must see to it that we build with the precious mate­rials that are produced when we give ourselves to the work of God and allow death to go over our own self-life as we do those works. We will only take divine nature—the truth that is in us—into eternity. We remember the end of Sigurd Bratlie’s life, when he was “unclothed” and his spiritual gifts disap­peared, but the fullness in his spirit radiated and followed him into eternity as a tremendous treasure.