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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 6
I. Consciousness:
А. Of life:
1. The higher the life, the richer its consciousness.
2. The divine life being the highest life with the richest consciousness.
3. This life within us causing us to be full of spiritual consciousness, enabling us to sense the spirit and the things of the spirit.
B. Of the law of life:
1. The law of a conscious life belonging to the realm of consciousness.
2. The law of the Spirit of life being full of consciousness.
C. Of peace:
1. The peace within us being entirely a matter of consciousness.
2. The consciousness of peace enabling us to know that we are in the spirit.
D. Of death:
1. Death causing us to lose consciousness.
2. Death also causing us to have the sense of death.
II. Knowing the spirit by the sense of the spirit:
А. By the sense of life:
1. The divine life being contained in the Holy Spirit.
2. The Holy Spirit mingling Himself with our spirit.
3. The divine life becoming the life of the Holy Spirit and of our spirit.
4. This divine life in the Holy Spirit through our spirit giving us the senses of life.
5. By such a sense of life we know the spirit.
B. By the sense of the law of life:
1. The law of life being the natural function of the divine life.
2. The functioning of the law of life.
3. The law of life giving us the natural sense on the positive side and the unnatural sense on the negative side.
4. The natural sense versus the unnatural sense of the law of life.
C. By the sense of peace:
1. The life of the Holy Spirit in our spirit being God Himself.
2. Our spirit with the divine life contained in the Holy Spirit being the new man.
3. God as our life versus our self.
4. The new man versus our old man.
5. The sense of peace being the issue of walking and living by the divine life.
6. By such a sense of peace we know that we are living in the spirit.
D. By the sense of death:
1. Death being the issue of our flesh, including our old man.
2. Death being the opposite of both life and peace.
3. The negative senses of death.
4. By such negative senses, we know that we are not in the spirit.
In this lesson we want to continue our fellowship on the sense of the spirit and knowing the spirit. In the previous lesson we saw four things related to the sense of the spirit: life, the law of life, peace, and death. Now we want to talk about the consciousness of these four things and about how to know the spirit by the sense of the spirit.
Life has its own consciousness; it has its own sense. The higher the life is, the richer its consciousness is. The plant life is the lowest life, so it has nearly no consciousness. Then in the animal life there are different levels of consciousness. The consciousness of life on different levels differs according to the standard of life. Our human life is higher than the animal life, so the human life has a richer consciousness. The divine life, of course, has the richest consciousness.
Among all the different lives, the divine life is the highest, so it has the richest consciousness.
The divine life in us causes us to be full of spiritual consciousness. The more we are filled with this divine life, the more we are filled with spiritual consciousness. This enables us to sense the spirit and also to sense the things of the spirit. This is the consciousness of life.
The law of life is not a law of something that has no consciousness, but it is the law of a conscious life. Thus, it belongs to the realm of consciousness.
The law of the Spirit of life is something in the sphere of consciousness and is full of consciousness.
The peace within us is not the peace in the environment. This is the peace within our being. It is entirely a matter of consciousness. We know that there is peace within us by the inner consciousness.
This consciousness of peace enables us to know that we are in the spirit. If we do not have peace, this indicates that we are not in the spirit. If we have peace, if we sense peace within us, this tells us that we are in the spirit.
Death first causes us to lose consciousness, because a dead person does not have any kind of consciousness.
On the one hand, death causes us to lose our consciousness, to become numb. On the other hand, death also causes us to have the sense of death. The sense of death is the sense of uneasiness, discomfort, depression, oppression, darkness, and emptiness. When we sense these things within us, this indicates that death is within us.
After we realize the consciousness of life, the law of life, peace, and death, we can know the spirit by the sense of the spirit.
The divine life is contained in the Holy Spirit. According to Romans 8:2, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life.
When we were regenerated, the Holy Spirit mingled Himself with our spirit (v. 16; 1 Cor. 6:17).
The divine life is mentioned in Romans 8:2, which refers to the law of the Spirit of life. Eventually, the divine life becomes the life not only of the Holy Spirit but also of our spirit, because now the Holy Spirit in whom the divine life is contained mingles Himself with our spirit. These two spirits have become one, so the divine life is the life of both of the two spirits, the Holy Spirit and our spirit.
We can know the spirit by the inner sense of the spirit. The divine life in the Holy Spirit through our spirit gives us the sense of freshness, liveliness, strengthening, brightness, holiness, reality, satisfaction, etc.
By the sense of life, we can know the spirit. When we sense all the above items deep within, that is the sense of life, and this sense proves that we are walking according to the spirit (v. 4).
We can also know the spirit by the sense of the law of life. The law of life is the natural function of the divine life according to its divine nature. This means that the law of life functions according to the divine nature of the divine life.
The law of life functions to approve and accept things corresponding with the divine nature, and it opposes and rejects things not corresponding with God’s nature.
The law of life always gives us some sense. Sometimes the sense is natural, on the positive side. This means that we are in the spirit. Sometimes the sense is unnatural, on the negative side. This means that we are not in the spirit.
By the natural sense of the law of life, we know that we are living in our spirit; by the unnatural sense of the law of life, we know that we are out of the spirit. These two senses are versus each other.
The life of the Holy Spirit is the life of God, and this life in our spirit is God Himself. The phrase the life of God (Eph. 4:18) means that the life is God.
The life in our spirit is God Himself, and our spirit with the divine life contained in the Holy Spirit is the new man.
God as our life is versus our self.
Furthermore, the new man is versus our old man.
When we walk and live by the divine life in our new man, we have the sense of peace, feeling natural, restful, comfortable, and at ease.
When we have the inner sense of peace with the feeling of comfort, harmony, rest, joy, and liberty, we know that we are living in the spirit.
Romans 8:6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death.” The flesh includes our old man. Death is the issue of our flesh, including our old man.
Romans 8:6 shows us that death is the opposite of both life and peace. The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
Death gives us the senses of oldness, dryness, weakness, emptiness, depression, desolation, darkness, dullness, uneasiness, insecurity, discomfort, unnaturalness, sadness, conflict, etc.
When we have such negative senses, we are sensing death. By such negative senses, we know that we are not in the spirit.
