Born again soulish believers do enjoy some spiritual experiences. Those, however, are rather mixed, with the soulish mingling with the spiritual.
These believers are familiar with the plan of a spiritual walk because the Holy Spirit has led them to do so. But due to many hindrances they frequently fall back upon natural energy to supply strength for their living, expecting to fulfill the commandments (imperatives) of God in the New Testament by their flesh.
These follow their desires and ideas and seek sensual pleasure and mental wisdom.
While they may be spiritual in knowledge, the fact is they are soulish. The Holy Spirit genuinely dwells in their spirit and has given them the experience of conquering sin through the legal and vital aspects of the finished work of the cross. But the Holy Spirit is not allowed to lead their lives. While some may be ignorant of the law of the Spirit, many others may love their soul life just too much to give it up.
Now spirit and soul are easy to distinguish in experience. Spiritual life is maintained simply by heeding the direction of the spirit’s intuition, revelation, and the faith that has been imparted.
If a believer walks according to God’s Spirit he will not originate or regulate anything; he will instead wait quietly for the voice of the Holy Spirit to be heard in his spirit intuitively, spontaneous thought, imagination or vision and assume for themselves the position of a co-laborer.
Upon hearing the inner voice they rise to co-labor, obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit.
By walking daily in the vital aspect of redemption the believer remains a dedicated follower.
The Holy Spirit alone is the Originator. But he is not self-dependent, but dependent on what he hears or sees the Father (YHWH) doing or saying. Whenever action is required the believer relies on the power of the Holy Spirit in their spirit. With an attitude such as this God will surely grant power according to His Word.
But the opposite of this is the Soulish life. Self is the center here. When a Christian is said to be soulish, they are walking according to self.
Everything originates from themselves. They are governed not by the voice of the Holy Spirit (they seldom know how he speaks) in the inner man but rather by the thoughts, decisions and desires of his outer man (soul).
Even their feeling of happiness rise from having their own wishes satisfied.
As the Holy Place is outside the Holy of Holies so the soul is outside the spirit. In such intimate proximity it is easy for the spirit to be influenced by the soul.
The soul has indeed been delivered from the domination of the body; it is no longer controlled by the lusts of the flesh; but a similar separation of the spirit from the control of the soul has not yet occurred in the soulish Christian.
Before the believer had overcome his fleshly lusts, his soul had been joint partner with his body. They together formed one life, that of the old man, even though the old man was legally crucified with Christ.
As it was with soul and body (flesh) so is it now with their spirit and their soul. The spirit is mixed with the soul. And the result is that their spirit is too often affected by his soul.
I hear this a lot in people who prophesy, a mixture of soul and spirit. I still wonder if there are any real spiritual prophets today. Some ever prophesy out of their soul; this is borderline Physic.
We know for a fact that a person who operated in the office of the Prophet, if their prophecy did not come to pass they were considered a false prophet.
This does not reflect personal prophecy, because that is always conditional on the person being prophesied to, if they are led by the Spirit.
Because our spirit is surrounded by the soul (even buried therein), the spirit is stimulated easily by the mind. A born-again person ought to possess unspeakable peace in the spirit.
Unfortunately, this tranquility is disturbed by the stimulating desires from the soul with its numerous independent desires and thoughts.
Sometimes the joy which floods the spirit overflows into the soul, encouraging the believer to think he is the happiest person in the world; at other times sorrow pervades and they become miserable. A soulish Christian frequently encounters such experiences. This is because the spirit and the soul remain undivided. They need to be divided in their experience.
When such believers hear some teaching on the division of spirit and soul, they would like very much to know where their spirit is. They may search diligently, but they are unable to sense the presence of their spirit. Without any real experience there, they naturally are at a loss how to distinguish their spirits from their souls. This is why you need to be baptized in the Spirit and be able to speak in lounges, then you can discern your spirit right away because it is your spirit that is speaking.
Before a saint arrives at the stage of spirituality, they are sure to be dwelling in a mixed condition.
In their daily living the believer sometimes will follow the leading of spirit and sometimes the soul. Such a mixture of spirit and soul reveals that two opposing sources reside in the believer: one belongs to God, one belongs to man (self): one is of the Spirit, the other is of themselves. One is supernatural, the other natural: one belongs to the spirit, the other belongs to the soul.
If the child of God allows the Holy Spirit to search their heart, he will show them the difference, but this requires waiting on the Lord (focused listening) they will perceive the two kinds of power within them. They will recognize that sometimes they live by one life and at other times by the other.
I can tell almost immediately if I am in my spirit, or the soul, mostly through retrospective revelation, after the damage is done, but I am still learning. That is why I must wait on the Lord and pray in tongues a lot.
On the one hand they know they must walk by faith trusting in the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, they often return to walking according to the soul. They live far more in the soul than in the spirit.
The degree of their soulishness varies according to (1) their understanding of the spirit life with spiritual principles of cooperating with God and (2) their actual yielding to the soul or spirit life.