A problem among God's children is the mixture of the soul with the spirit. Whenever their spirit is released, their soul is released as well. It is hard to find a person whose spirit is pure. With many people this purity is lacking. It is this mixture that disqualifies them from being used by God. The first qualification in the work is a purity of the spirit, not a measure of power. Many people hope to have great power, yet they pay no attention to purity in the spirit. Although they have the power to build, they are short in purity. As a result their work is bound for destruction. On the one hand, they build with power. On the other hand, they destroy with their impurity. They demonstrate God's power, yet at the same time their spirit is a mixed spirit.

Some people think that as long as they receive power from God, everything that they have will be sublimated and be taken up by God for His service. But this will never happen. Whatever belongs to the outer man will forever belong to the outer man. The more we know God, the more we will treasure purity over power. We cherish this purity. This purity is different from spiritual power, and it is free from any contamination of the outer man. If a man has never experienced any dealing in his outer man, it is impossible to expect the power that issues from him to be pure. He cannot assume that just because he has spiritual power and has produced some results in his work that he is free to mix his self with his spirit. If he does this, he will become a problem. This, in fact, is a sin.

Many young brothers and sisters know that the gospel is the power of God. But when they preach the gospel, they add in their own cleverness, frivolity, jokes, and personal feelings. Others can sense God's power with them, but at the same time they also sense the self. The preachers themselves may not feel anything, but the pure ones immediately will sense the presence of mixture. We often are zealous for God's work outwardly, yet in reality we mix in our own preferences. We often are doing God's will outwardly, but actually it is only a coincidence that God's will matches our will. Many so-called wills of God are mixed up with man's preferences! Much zeal is mixed up with man's sentiment! Many stout testimonies for God are mixed up with man's stubborn disposition!

Our greatest problem is our mixture. Hence, God has to work on us to break our outer man as well as to remove our mixture. God is breaking us step by step so that our outer man will no longer be whole. After our outer man is battered once, ten, twenty times, we will be broken and our hard outer shell before God will be gone. But what should we do with the mixture of the outer man in our spirit? This requires another work—the work of purging. This work is carried out not only through the discipline of the Spirit, but also through the revelation of the Spirit. The way to purge mixture is different from the way to break the outer man. The way to purge mixture is often through revelation. Therefore, we find God dealing with us in two ways. One is the breaking of the outer man, and the other is the separation of the outer man from the spirit. One comes through the discipline of the Holy Spirit, and the other is the result of the revelation of the Holy Spirit.