How does one grasp the details of spirit? How does the Holy Spirit work in man? How does Satan work in man? How do evil spirits work in man? What are the manifestations? When something happens to you, does it come from the Holy Spirit, and should you submit to it or rebel against it? In people’s actual practice, much arises from human will that people invariably believe comes from the Holy Spirit. Some things come from evil spirits, yet people still always think they have come from the Holy Spirit, and sometimes the Holy Spirit guides people from within, yet people are afraid that such guidance comes from Satan and so do not dare to submit, when in reality that guidance is the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if one does not exercise discernment, they won’t be able to gain experience of the actual things they go through; if one doesn’t exercise discernment in their experiences, then they won’t be able to gain life. How does the Holy Spirit do work? How do evil spirits do work? What comes from the will of man? And what is born of the guidance and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit? If you grasp the patterns of the Holy Spirit’s work within man, then, in your daily life and during your real experiences, you will be able to grow your knowledge and gain discernment; you will come to know God, you will be able to comprehend and discern Satan; you will not be confused in your submission or pursuit, and you will be someone whose thoughts are clear, who submits to the work of the Holy Spirit.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to provide guidance and enlightenment on the positive side. It will not make people negative. It brings them solace, gives them faith and resolve, and enables them to pursue being made perfect by God. When the Holy Spirit works, people are able to enter in a positive manner; they are not passive or forced, but act at their own initiative. When the Holy Spirit works, people are glad and willing, willing to submit and happy to humble themselves. Even though they are pained and weak inside, they have the resolve to cooperate; they suffer gladly, they are able to submit, and they are untainted by human will, untainted by the thinking of man, and even more so untainted by human expectations and motivations. When people experience the work of the Holy Spirit, they are especially pure inside. Those who are possessed of the work of the Holy Spirit live out love for God and love for their brothers and sisters; they like the things that delight God and loathe the things that God loathes. People who are touched by the work of the Holy Spirit are those who have normal humanity, usually pursue the truth, and are possessed of humanity. When the Holy Spirit works within people, their condition becomes better and better, and their humanity becomes more and more normal, and though some of their cooperation may be foolish, their motivations are right, their entry is positive, they do not try to cause disruptions, and they do not harbor any bad intentions. The work of the Holy Spirit is normal and practical, the Holy Spirit works in man according to life patterns of normal people, and He carries out enlightenment and guidance within people according to the actual pursuit of normal people. When the Holy Spirit works in people, He guides and enlightens them according to the needs of normal people. He provides for them according to their needs, and He positively guides and enlightens them according to what they lack, and according to their deficiencies. The Holy Spirit’s work is to enlighten and guide people in real life; only if they experience God’s words in their actual lives are they able to see the work of the Holy Spirit. If, in their everyday lives, people are in a positive state and have a normal spiritual life, then they are possessed of the work of the Holy Spirit. In such a state, they have faith when they eat and drink the words of God, they are inspired when they pray, and they are not negative when they come up against something—within it, they are able to see the lessons that God requires them to learn, they are not negative or weak, and although they have real difficulties, they are willing to submit to all the arrangements of God.

What effects are achieved by the work of the Holy Spirit? You may be foolish, or you may be devoid of discernment, but the Holy Spirit has but to work and there will be faith in you, you will always feel that you cannot love God enough, and you will be willing to cooperate. No matter how great the difficulties ahead, you will still be willing to cooperate. When things happen to you, it will not be clear to you whether they come from God or from Satan, but you will be able to wait, and you will be neither negative nor remiss. This is the normal work of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit works within you, you will still encounter real difficulties: Sometimes you will be brought to tears, and sometimes there will be things that you are incapable of overcoming—this is all just a phase of the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit. Although you will fail to overcome those things, and although at the time you will be weak and will complain, afterward you will still be able to love God, overflowing with faith. Your negativity will not prevent you from having normal experiences, and regardless of what other people say, and how others attack you, you will still be able to love God. During prayer, you will always feel that in the past you were so indebted to God, and you will resolve to satisfy God and rebel against the flesh when you encounter such things again. This drive shows that the work of the Holy Spirit is within you. This is the normal state of the work of the Holy Spirit.

What is the work that comes from Satan? In the work that comes from Satan, the visions within people are vague; people are without normal humanity, the motivations behind their actions are wrong, and although they wish to love God there are always accusations within them, and these accusations and thoughts cause constant disturbance within them, constraining the growth of their life and stopping them from being in a normal condition before God. This is to say, as soon as the work of Satan is within people, their hearts cannot be at peace before God. They do not know what to do with themselves—when they see people gathering together, they want to run away, and they are unable to close their eyes when others pray. The work of evil spirits wrecks the normal relationship between man and God, and upsets people’s previous visions or their former path of life entry; in their hearts they can never draw close to God, they are constantly disturbed and constrained by something, and their hearts cannot find peace. They are left with no strength to love God and with their spirits sinking. Such are the manifestations of the work of Satan. The manifestations of the work of Satan are: being unable to stand your ground and stand firm in your witness, causing you to become a wrong person before God and a person who has no loyalty toward God. When Satan disturbs you, you lose the love and loyalty toward God within you, you are stripped of a normal relationship with God, you do not pursue the truth or the improvement of yourself; you regress and become negative, you indulge yourself, you give free rein to the spread of sin and are not hateful of sin. Furthermore, it causes you to become dissolute; it causes God’s touch to disappear within you and makes you complain about God and oppose Him, leading you to question God; there is even the risk that you will leave. All of this comes from Satan.

When something happens to you in your daily life, how should you discern whether it comes from the work of the Holy Spirit or from the work of Satan? When people’s conditions are normal, their spiritual lives and their lives in the flesh are normal and their reason is normal and orderly. When they are in this condition, what they experience and come to know within themselves can generally be said to come from being touched by the Holy Spirit (having insights or gaining some shallow knowledge when they eat and drink the words of God, or being loyal in certain matters, or having the strength to love God in some things—this all comes from the Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit’s work in man is especially normal; man is incapable of feeling it, and it seems to come through man himself, although it is in fact the work of the Holy Spirit. In daily life, the Holy Spirit does work in everyone, which may be great or small, and it is just the extent of this work that varies. Some people are of good caliber, and they comprehend things quickly, and the Holy Spirit provides special enlightenment within them. Meanwhile, some people are of poor caliber, and it takes them longer to comprehend things, but the Holy Spirit touches them inside and they, too, are able to be loyal to God. The Holy Spirit works in all those who pursue God. When, in daily life, people do not oppose or rebel against God, do not do things that disrupt the management of God and do not disturb the work of God, then in each one of them the Spirit of God works to a greater or lesser extent; He touches them, enlightens them, gives them faith, gives them strength, and moves them to enter in a positive manner, not being lazy or coveting the enjoyments of the flesh, willing to practice the truth, and longing for the words of God. All of this is work that comes from the Holy Spirit.

When people’s states are not normal, they are forsaken by the Holy Spirit. The complaints within their hearts, their wrong intentions, their laziness, their indulgence of their flesh, and their desire to betray the truth—all of this comes from Satan. When people’s conditions are not normal, when they are dark inside and have lost their normal reason, have been forsaken by the Holy Spirit, and are unable to feel God within themselves, this is when Satan is working within them. If people always have strength within them and always love God, then generally, when things happen to them, those things come from the Holy Spirit, and whomever they meet, the meeting is the result of the arrangements of God. This is to say that when you are in a normal condition, when you are within the great work of the Holy Spirit, then it is impossible for Satan to make you waver. Upon this foundation it can be said that everything comes from the Holy Spirit, and although you may have incorrect thoughts, you are able to rebel against them and you do not follow them. All this comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. In what situations does Satan interfere? It is easy for Satan to work within you when your conditions are not normal, when you have not been touched by God and are without the work of God, when you are dry and barren inside, when you pray to God but grasp nothing, and when you eat and drink the words of God but are not enlightened or illuminated. In other words, when you have been forsaken by the Holy Spirit and you cannot feel God, then many things happen to you that come from the temptation of Satan. As the Holy Spirit works, Satan also is working all the while. The Holy Spirit touches man inwardly, while at the same time Satan causes disturbances within man. However, the work of the Holy Spirit takes the leading position, and people whose conditions are normal can overcome this; this is the triumph of the work of the Holy Spirit over the work of Satan. While the Holy Spirit works, corrupt dispositions still exist within people; however, during the Holy Spirit’s work, it is easy for people to discover and recognize their rebelliousness, motivations, and adulterations. Only then do people feel remorse and grow willing to repent. As such, their rebelliousness and corrupt dispositions are gradually cast off within God’s work. The work of the Holy Spirit is especially normal; as He works in people, they still have difficulties, they still weep, they still suffer, they are still weak and there is still much that is unclear to them. Yet when they are in these states, they are able to stop themselves from regressing, and they can still love God, and although they weep and are distressed, they are still able to praise God; the work of the Holy Spirit is especially normal, not the slightest bit supernatural. Most people believe that, as soon as the Holy Spirit begins to work, changes occur in people’s state, and the things that are the substance of them are cast off. Such an understanding is distorted. When the Holy Spirit works within man, the negative things of man are still there and his stature remains the same, but he gains the illumination and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and so he is in a positive state more of the time, the conditions within him become normal, and he changes faster. In people’s real experiences, they primarily experience the work of either the Holy Spirit or Satan, and if they are unable to grasp these states and have no discernment of them, then entry into practical experiences is out of the question, to say nothing of changes in disposition. Thus, the key to experiencing God’s work is being able to see through to such things; in this way, it will be easier for them to experience it.

The work of the Holy Spirit makes people positive and driven, whereas the work of Satan makes them become negative and retreat, rebel against God and oppose Him, lose faith in Him, and become weak in doing their duty. Everything that stems from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit is quite natural; it is not forced upon you. If you submit to it, then you will have peace; if you do not, then you will afterward feel rebuked. If it is the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, you won’t be disturbed or constrained in anything you do; you will be set free, there will be a path of practice in your actions, and you will be unbound, and be able to act upon the intentions of God. The work of Satan causes you disturbance in many things; it makes you unwilling to pray, too lazy to eat and drink the words of God, and indisposed to live the life of the church, and it estranges you from the spiritual life. The work of the Holy Spirit does not interfere with your daily life and does not interfere with your normal spiritual life. You are unable to discern many things at the very moment they occur, yet, after a few days, your heart becomes brighter and your mind clearer. You come to have some sense about things of the spirit, and slowly you can discern whether a thought has come from God or from Satan. Some things clearly make you oppose God and rebel against God, or stop you from putting the words of God into practice; these things all come from Satan. Some things are not apparent, and you cannot discern them in the moment; afterward, you can see their manifestations and then exercise discernment. If you can clearly discern which things come from Satan and which are directed by the Holy Spirit, then you will not easily go astray in your experiences. Sometimes, your condition is not good, and you have a thought that takes you out of your negative state. This shows that even when your condition is unfavorable, some of your thoughts can still come from the Holy Spirit. It is not the case that when you are negative, all your thoughts are sent by Satan; if that were true, then when would you be able to transition into a positive state? When you have been negative for a period of time, the Holy Spirit gives you an opportunity to be made perfect; He touches you, causing you to emerge from your negative state, and you enter into a normal state.

Knowing what the work of the Holy Spirit is and what the work of Satan is, you can compare these to your own state during your experiences, and to your own experiences, and in this way there will be many more truths relating to principle in your experiences. Having understood these truths about principle, you will be able to grasp your actual state, you will be able to discern people and events, and you will not have to spend so much effort in gaining the work of the Holy Spirit. Of course, this depends on your motivations being right and on your willingness to seek and to practice. Language such as this—language which relates to principles—is something you should have in your experiences. Without it, your experiences will be full of the disturbance of Satan and foolish knowledge. If you do not understand how the Holy Spirit works, then you do not understand how to pray to God or how you ought to enter, and if you do not know how Satan acts to mislead and disturb people, then you do not know how to reject Satan and stand firm in your witness. How the Holy Spirit works and how Satan acts are things people should understand, and they are things that must be experienced in people’s belief in God.