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Scripture Reading: Psa. 51:10; 2 Tim. 1:7; Gal. 6:1; 1 Pet. 3:4; Prov. 16:19; Matt. 5:3; 2 Cor. 7:1
In the previous chapters we saw the dealings with the flesh, the self, the conscience, and the world. Christians today speak much about spiritual gifts and power, but even though we love, follow, and serve the Lord with a sincere heart, we can only realize the spiritual gifts and spiritual power in a real way through all the above dealings. We can say this with all assurance. If we do not know how to deal with the flesh, if we do not practice dealing with the self, if we neglect our conscience, or if we do not pay the price to deal with the worldly matters with us and in us, then no matter how seeking we are, we can never realize anything real in the spiritual realm.
The real growth of the spiritual, inner life depends one hundred percent on our dealing with the conscience. If we neglect our conscience, we may gain much self-knowledge, but we cannot have even a little spiritual growth. We must have a good conscience, a conscience without any kind of accusation or offense. Our conscience must be pure, good, and in a condition of constant peace and rest with God. If we have a problem, accusation, or offense in our conscience, it is very difficult to advance in the life of the Lord.
While we are dealing with our conscience, we must also keep our flesh and self under a strict dealing. Otherwise, we can never advance in the spiritual life. This includes many lessons of the application of the cross of the Lord. In order to deal with the flesh and the self, we need many lessons on applying the crucifixion of the Lord in our daily life. However, all these dealings with the flesh and the self depend upon our dealing with the conscience. If our conscience is not good, pure, and without offense, it simply does not function well, and many times we will not know whether or not we are in the flesh. We may be in the flesh, speak in the flesh, act in the flesh, and even serve the Lord in the flesh, but we do not have the sense, the knowledge, that we are in the flesh, because our conscience is not functioning well.
When light shines, it is a regulating power; where there is no light, there is confusion. If we are in a room without windows, we are in darkness; we can see, know, and realize nothing around us. In such a case there is no regulating power. In this sense, the conscience is a spiritual window, a window to our spiritual life. If we are in the light of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual light is a regulating power, regulating us all the time and pointing out to us what is of the flesh and of the self. This spiritual consciousness comes from a conscience that is pure, good, and without any kind of accusation.
In addition, there is the problem of the world. Dealing with the flesh, the self, and the conscience have very much to do with the growth of life, and dealing with the world has very much to do with power. Today people speak much about the power of the Holy Spirit, the power from on high, and people seek speaking in tongues and the Pentecostal experiences. However, true spiritual power comes from dealing with the world. The more we sacrifice the worldly things, the more we are powerful. Our gospel preaching must be prevailing and powerful, but the way to preach the gospel in power is to sacrifice. The more we sacrifice, the more we give up and deal with the worldly things, the more we are empowered. If we give up all the usurpation of the worldly things, we will be released, and we will be clothed with power from on high.
We have seen the difference between the spirit, the soul, and the body and that our human spirit is the innermost part of our entire being, through which, in which, and by which we contact God. Therefore, dealing with our human spirit is even deeper than dealing with our conscience. We need to deal with our flesh, our self, our conscience, and even the more with our spirit as our innermost part.
To learn how to deal with our spirit is very important because the spiritual ministry, the spiritual service, and even the spiritual flow of life depend upon our spirit. What we minister to people must be something spiritual, that is, by the spirit and in the spirit. Ministering by the spirit can be illustrated by serving a drink. Before we serve someone a drink, we must wash our hands and wash the cup, because if our hands or the cup are dirty, we will make the drink dirty. This is a picture of dealing with the flesh, the self, and the conscience. However, after washing our hands and the cup, we also must purify the water itself. Our hands and the cup may be absolutely clean, yet the water itself may be dirty. Dealing with the water is a picture of dealing with the spirit. After we learn how to deal with the flesh, the self, and the conscience, we must learn how to deal with the spirit itself. Our spirit must be pure because what we minister to people is from the spirit. If the spirit is not pure and right, no matter how clean we are in other matters, there still will be something defiling.
If we read the Scriptures carefully, we will notice that there are many different conditions of the spirit. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, / And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Our spirit must be steadfast. It may be that we have no problem with the flesh, no trouble with the self, and no offense in the conscience, but whether or not our spirit is steadfast is another matter. Second Timothy 1:7 says, “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” The spirit here is not the Holy Spirit; it is our human spirit. It is a spirit of power toward the enemy, a spirit of love toward others, and a spirit of sobermindedness toward ourselves.
Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers, even if a man is overtaken in some offense, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness.” A spirit of meekness is a certain condition of the spirit. Our spirit must be powerful yet meek. First Peter 3:4 speaks of “the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God.” Proverbs 16:19 says, “It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, / Than to divide the spoil with the proud.” A lowly spirit is another condition of the spirit. Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” This is not to have a poor spirit but to be poor in spirit. Finally, 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We must be cleansed from all filthiness not only of the flesh but of the spirit. There are many passages concerning the spirit, but this selection is sufficient to show us that the spirit may be in different conditions. Therefore, there is the need to deal with our spirit to keep our spirit in a right condition. Our spirit must be steadfast, and it must be a spirit of power, of love, and of sobermindedness. It must be meek, quiet, lowly, and cleansed, and we must be poor in spirit.
The human spirit has been defiled, influenced, damaged, and spoiled by the soul and by the flesh, but in itself it is not sinful as the flesh and the soul are. Our great problem is not in the spirit but in the soul and the flesh. As we already have seen, we have sin in the flesh and the self in the soul. Sin and self are the two biggest problems we have with God. We cannot trace, however, that there is a direct problem with our spirit. The only verse that might indicate this is 2 Corinthians 7:1, which speaks of defilement of flesh and of spirit. However, the defilement of the spirit is not the defilement of the spirit itself. It is something of the soul and the flesh, which influence the spirit. Because our human spirit is under the influence of the soul and the damage of the flesh, it is defiled.
We may compare this to a fountain with a flow of water. The fountain and the water themselves may be clean, but the water has to flow through a passage. If the passage is clear and clean, the flow of the water will be clean. However, the water can be dirtied by the passage. The passage is the problem. By now we are clear that the spirit is the innermost part of our whole being, but in order for us to release our spirit, our spirit needs to pass through our soul and body. In this way, the soul and body become the passages of the spirit.
The body is a dwelling place, a residence, for the soul, and the soul is a vessel for the spirit. The spirit is contained in the soul, and the soul dwells in the body. Therefore, when the spirit is released, it passes through the soul and the body. Even though there is no problem with the spirit, there are many problems with the passages of the spirit. When our soul is pure and there are no problems of the flesh, the spirit is released in a proper way.
The spirit is the innermost part of our whole being. It is the very center, the very reality, of the human being. We often speak of the sincerity of the heart, but the real sincerity is not in the heart. The spirit is even deeper than the heart, so the real sincerity is in the spirit. When we contact others with our emotions or mind, we are not sincere with them. Because we feel happy with others, we may treat them well; this is to contact them with our emotions, which is not sincere. Sometimes we may contact others with our mind or reasonings, but this also is not sincere. We contact others in sincerity when we contact them in the spirit, because this is a contact from the innermost part of our whole being.
The best time to realize that a person is contacting someone from his spirit is when he loses his temper. For someone to lose his temper is the most sincere contact, because it is easy to release the spirit when we lose our temper. If we can control ourselves, we can always pretend and say, “O brother, I love you.” This is a pretense. It is a love in word, or at most in our understanding or our emotion. But when one day we lose our temper, whatever is truly within us is released.
It is difficult for people to release the spirit. We can speak many things from the emotions and the mind without the release of our spirit. Sometimes a brother ministering from the platform ministers only from his mind or his emotion, and there is almost nothing released from his spirit. As ministers of the word and those who serve the Lord, we must learn how to release the spirit. Even in a prayer meeting, it is sometimes difficult to utter a prayer because we have too many considerations. We have self-consciousness, considerations about others, and problems with language, grammar, composition, and content, among other things. We are so much in our considerations that we are hindered from expressing a prayer. Sometimes we can express a prayer only in a timid way, saying, “Lord, I am so weak. Help me, Lord.” This may be merely out of our mouth and mind, having nothing from the spirit.
This is why many times we need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When the outpouring of the Spirit comes upon us, we release our spirit and pray from the depths of our whole being. We may only say, “Lord, be merciful to me,” but our spirit is released by this prayer. However, we should not think that to shout and pray loudly are to release the spirit. The spirit can be released without much emotion.
In order to serve the Lord and to practice the church life, sooner or later we will find that the biggest lesson to learn is the dealing with the spirit. We may illustrate this in the following way. A brother may receive a certain light from the Scriptures. This causes him to be very happy and rejoicing, and when he comes to the meeting, he is excited and can barely control himself. The first chance he gets, he stands up and releases his revelation. There is no doubt that he has heavenly, spiritual light, but he delivers his message with an impure spirit, a spirit that is not purified and is full of human excitement and the human essence and element. His message is one of heavenly light; it may even be a great and unprecedented revelation, something the church has never before seen. However, it may be released with a proud spirit.
We may go to a brother to speak something very spiritual, yet we may speak it in a spirit that is not meek, not humble, and not of love. Our message may be entirely right, good, and necessary, but our spirit is wrong. Now we can see what it means to deal with the spirit. If we do not deal with our spirit, we can never give people a pure flow of the pure, divine water. We can never be a pure channel for a pure flow of the pure inner life. In order to be a pure channel, we need to deal with our spirit. We may say that there is nothing wrong with our message. Our light is not wrong, and we are not sinful. However, what kind of spirit do we have? It may be a spirit that is not meek, not pure, not humble, and not of love.
Sometimes our spirit may not be one of sobermindedness. It may be a spirit of a foolish mind. When some brothers speak something in the meeting, they have the release of the spirit, but their spirit is one of foolishness; they have a foolish mind with the spirit.
Someone may ask us how we feel about a brother, and we may reply that he is a good brother and that we have no problem with him. If a person knows how to sense the human spirit, however, he will be able to realize that we actually have many problems with that brother. If someone asks me if I am Chinese, I can say no, but he should recognize that my tone and accent are Chinese, just as Peter’s Galilean accent gave him away (Matt. 26:73). This illustrates that when we listen to a person, we should listen not only to the words but to his “tone,” that is, his spirit. A number of times someone has said, “Let me fellowship with you about a certain brother. I have no problem with him, and I have not come to accuse him.” At that point we may discern that he is accusing. His word is not accusing, but his spirit is. If we have a spirit of hatred, even though we may say one hundred times that we love a brother, the spirit of hatred is still there.
Someone cannot be sure that I am Chinese until I say something. In the same way, it is hard for someone to know our spirit if we say nothing. The wisest way not to expose our spirit is not to open our mouth. The more we express ourselves, the more our spirit is exposed. One secret of dealing with people is not to stop them from speaking. Let them speak much. The more they speak, the more we are clear about them, because the more they speak, the more they expose their spirit. If we listen not merely to their words but to their spirit, to their spiritual “tone” and “accent,” we will know where they are in the spirit. This is the way the spiritual man can discern all things.
What we are is not in our word but in our spirit. What kind of spirit we have is what we are. We may say, “I am speaking humbly,” but we can still have a spirit of pride. If we do not deal with the spirit of pride, we can never be truly humble. On the other hand, if we do not have a proud spirit, if we have dealt with the spirit of pride, we can even say, “I am too proud,” but others will sense that we are very humble. In word we can be proud, but in reality, in the spirit, others can see we are humble. Sometimes a parent may tease his child and say, “I hate you,” but the more he says that, the more the child comes to him, because the child senses that the parent actually loves him. On the other hand, a certain person may say, “I love you,” but in truth there is no love. The more he says he loves us, the more we sense that he has no love for us. It is not a matter of word; it is a matter of the spirit. Therefore, we must deal with our spirit.
In order to help people, to serve the Lord, to minister something of the Lord to others, and to practice the church life, there is the real need to deal with our spirit. If our spirit is right, we can do everything. We have the full liberty, the full freedom, when our spirit is right. But when our spirit is not right, we should be careful not to say anything to others. If we say nothing, then the wrong thing within us will be hidden, like a bomb about to explode, but as soon as we express something, the hidden matter comes out.
If there is nothing wrong in us and our spirit is right with others, there is no need to be so careful. We can speak something freely with others. But if we have a problem with a brother and we are unhappy with him, he can sense the problem with our spirit as soon as we greet him. Therefore, we must deal with the spirit. Whenever we sense that there is something wrong in our spirit toward a brother, we need to go to the Lord and say, “Lord, deal with me. What is wrong with my spirit? Why do I not have the freedom, peace, and boldness to contact my brother? Why must I be so careful in contacting my brother, and why am I afraid to contact him?” The answer is that we have something wrong with our spirit, and we must deal with it.
In order to deal with our spirit, we must deal with our motives, intentions, and desires. We may, for example, have a desire to exalt ourselves. We may have the desire to let the brothers know that we have received a great revelation, yet we pretend to be humble. If the responsible brothers come to us and ask, “Do you have something to speak?” we may pretend and say, “I am not certain.” This is a lie, because within our heart we desire to use the entire time for our message. This is a problem with our desire. In this case, our spirit can never be clear, clean, and pure. We may say that we are seeking the Lord’s mind, but our spirit will never be clear about the Lord’s mind because it is so perplexed by the desire in our heart, in our emotion, to find the opportunity to exalt ourselves. Then even if we pretend, we still have a wrong spirit.
To merely be humble does not work. We must deal with our desire. This desire must be put on the cross and pass through the cross. We need to apply the cross to this desire by saying, “Lord, I thank You that You gave me this light, but I realize that there is a desire within me to utilize the light You gave me. I simply apply Your cross to this desire. Lord, if it is not of You, I will not speak one word about the light You have given me.” Then even if the brothers ask us if we have something to say, we will say no. This is the truth, not a lie, because we have something, but at the present time we have no desire to utter it. Then the Lord may gradually prepare the opportunity for us to say something, and the indwelling Spirit will give us the inner anointing, the inner guidance, to speak something not for ourselves but for the Lord. We will speak and release a revelation not to exalt ourselves but to edify the saints by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
When we minister in this way, the ministry will be a pure flow. Not only will the water of life and light be pure, but even the channel will be pure. We may minister a message that is very spiritual, right, and heavenly, but we may be a person with an impure spirit, a spirit of pride, of self-desire, of self-love, of self-intention, and of self-exaltation. Then, if someone has learned the lesson of dealing with the spirit, he will sense that our message is spiritual and heavenly, but the spirit is defiled. We can give people something heavenly and spiritual yet not pure. This is due not to the self but to our spirit.
We must learn to deal with our spirit. Today the Lord needs some spiritual brothers and sisters who know how to minister the spiritual things to people, that is, how to minister Christ the Lord Himself to others as their everything. However, there is a need to minister in a pure spirit, in a spirit that has been dealt with by the cross. If we have any wrong intention, ambition, or human motive in our ministering to others, we may minister something right, spiritual, heavenly, and eternal, but it will be in a wrong spirit. If we have a self-intention, self-ambition, self-exaltation, self-interest, and an undealt with, impure motive for self, and if our desire has never been crucified, we may do many right and spiritual things, and we may seem to minister something of Christ, but we will minister in a wrong, impure spirit.
Here is the need to be purified in our spirit. Our spirit has to be purified in its motives, intentions, desires, ambitions, will, and interests. If we are sent by the Lord to do any kind of work, or if we are committed by the Lord with any kind of commission, we must perform it in a right way and, even the more, in a purified spirit with a pure motive, a pure intent, a pure desire, a pure will, and a pure interest. Then we can minister a pure flow of the pure divine life to people. This is what the Lord needs today for His church, for the church life, and for the building up of the church.
We can speak many things, but what matters is the spirit in which we are speaking. We can serve, work, and practice many things in the church, but we need to check with what motives, intentions, desires, will, and interests and for whose exaltation we are doing these things. We need the checkpoint of the cross. If we deal with all these things, the passage for the spirit to flow out will be cleared and purified. We will have a clear and purified passage for the spirit to flow out something pure of the Lord. The life, the flow, and the channel will all be pure, and we will minister a pure flow of the pure life to the Lord’s children. Then the church will truly be built up. Dear brothers and sisters, this is not merely a matter of right or wrong, or good or evil; it is a matter of motives, interests, intentions, and desires. It is a matter of the purification of the passages of the spirit to allow the flow of living water to be released. This is the greatest checkpoint of the cross through which we must pass.
This is the final item of dealing. We must learn to deal with the flesh, the self, the conscience, the world, and the spirit, and to deal with the spirit simply means to deal with our motives, intentions, desires, will, and interests.
