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The reality of the church is in our spirit. This is a simple statement, yet it is very profound. The majority of Christians know the Holy Spirit, but they do not know the human spirit. The reality of the church is not only in the Holy Spirit but also in our spirit. If the reality of the church were only in the Holy Spirit, the church would be abstract and far away from us. The reality of the church must also be in our spirit in order for the church to be practical. The church as the reality is in your spirit and also in my spirit. It is in the spirit of every person who is saved, loves the Lord, and lives in his spirit. In relation to the reality of the church, Ephesians presents four main points concerning the human spirit.
In order to have the reality of the church, we must be filled in our spirit with the Spirit of God. Human beings have a physical body, and they have a spirit within them. Our body needs water and at least three meals a day. Some people like to drink wine. When they drink too much wine, they become drunk. Ephesians 5:18 shows a contrast between being filled with wine and being filled in spirit. The first part of this verse says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness.” This means that we should not fill our body with wine; that is, we should not allow our body to be filled with wine. The second part of the verse says, “But be filled in spirit.” This means that our spirit should be filled with God.
This word corresponds to other portions of the Bible that speak of God as our spiritual wine. In the Bible wine symbolizes God as the One who can quench our thirst, make us joyful, cause us to be excited, and give us power (Matt. 9:17). We should not be drunk with physical wine, but we should be filled with God. On the day of Pentecost the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. Those who saw them said, “They are full of new wine!” (Acts 2:13).
God can fill us because God is Spirit. In His economy God was incarnated and came to the earth as our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. After His death and resurrection, as the last Adam, He became the life-giving Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Lord as the Spirit can fill our inward being, just as air fills a container.
There is a simple way to be filled in spirit. Acts 2:17 says, “It shall be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit.” Verse 21 says, “It shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” God has poured out His Spirit, but how can we be filled with this Spirit? The way to be filled with the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord: “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” In order for air to enter a room, we need to open the window. As soon as a window is open, air comes in. Likewise, in order for the Spirit to fill us, we need to open up the window of our being. The window of our being is more complicated than the window in a room. The window in a room has only one layer, but the window of our being has three layers. The first layer is our body. The way to open this layer is to open our mouth. When our mouth is open, our body is open. The second layer is the soul, or our heart. We have to open not only our mouth but also our heart. It is not enough to open only these two layers. There is a third layer, which is our human spirit. Our spirit also needs to be open. Sometimes when we call on the Lord, our mouth is open, but our heart is not open. In order to call on the Lord from the deepest part of our being, we must open our mouth, our heart, and our spirit.
Some do not agree with calling on the Lord. It is not a matter of whether or not we agree, because calling is just as necessary as breathing (Lam. 3:55-56). The most profitable exercise for our body is deep breathing; likewise, the most profitable exercise for our spiritual life is deep breathing. For the first ten years of my life as a Christian, I was a dumb believer. I was dumb even when I prayed. Gradually, I realized that it makes a difference whether a Christian prays audibly or inaudibly.
About forty years ago in Shanghai, someone asked Brother Nee what he should do in order to prevent himself from falling asleep when he prayed. Another person asked how to stop his mind from wandering when he prayed. Brother Nee replied, “If you pray audibly, you will not fall asleep, and your mind will not wander.” This is truly effective. Even if we are sleepy, we will not fall asleep when we pray audibly. Similarly, when we pray audibly, our mind does not wander. Hence, praying audibly is useful.
I discovered calling on the Lord’s name in the Word. The Greek word for call on implies calling out with an audible voice or calling out loudly, just as Stephen did (Acts 7:59-60). Before Paul was saved, he persecuted Christians. He even received authority from the chief priests to bind those who called on the Lord’s name (9:14; cf. v. 21). This indicates that he did not have to search a house in order to find and arrest the Christians. The Lord’s disciples were callers; they called on the name of the Lord. Everyone knew that they called on the Lord’s name. This is also the situation in the church in Los Angeles. More than two hundred saints live around the meeting hall, and all the neighbors know that the saints are believers, because from morning to night the saints always call, “O Lord! Jesus is Lord! Hallelujah!”
The Lord’s disciples called on the Lord’s name because calling on the Lord is equivalent to breathing the Lord. When we call, “O Lord!” the Lord comes into us. This is the way to be filled with the Lord. The Lord has given us a very simple secret: we need only to call on His name in order to be filled with Him. However, when we call on the Lord’s name, we must allow Him to do a burning work within us. When we call on the Lord, He may touch a certain sin or something of the world in us, or He may touch the self. When He touches something, we must deal with it and confess it. This is the way to be filled with the Lord by calling on His name.
When we are filled with the Lord, we become the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19b). The Lord is the Spirit, and the Lord is God. Hence, to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the Lord, to be filled with the Lord is to be filled with God, and to be filled with God is to be filled with the riches of God unto the fullness of God. The result of our calling on the Lord is that we are filled with all that God is. In order to have the reality of the church, we need to be filled with all that God is. Many of us are not filled with God in our spirit. Some of us open our mouth when we call on the Lord’s name, and some do not. It is difficult to be filled in our spirit when we do not open our mouth to call on the Lord.
There is a difference in our experience between calling on the Lord’s name and not calling. We should not think that it is all right for the young ones to call on the Lord’s name but that this is not so proper for the older ones. Some may say that it is unbecoming for the saints who are professors or managers to call on the Lord when they come to the meeting. If we take care of outward appearances, we will not gain the Lord or have His fullness. Those who call on the Lord’s name know that it is a great blessing to call on His name. If we are sad when we call, we become happy; if we are afraid, we become bold; and if we are in darkness, we receive light. When we call on the Lord, we must open up our mouth, our heart, and our spirit and call from deep within.
We cannot force anyone to call on the Lord. However, we can pray for him to open his mouth and call on the Lord. I would like to speak a frank word. We do not want calling to become a religion. When we call, we should take care of others. Once there was a group of saints singing while another group of saints stood beside them calling on the Lord. This made the meeting chaotic. Whether we call on the Lord or sing, we should take care of the meeting.
Pray-reading the Word is another way to be filled in spirit (5:18-19; Col. 3:16). In the meetings we need to avoid the flavor of being noisy when we pray-read. It is good to release the spirit, but if we are loud, we will lose the flavor of prayer and of reading. Sometimes we may utter longer sentences in order to improve our pray-reading, but the sentences should not be too long. Sometimes we may utter three to five short sentences. In this way we will have a rich flavor when we pray-read.
We should avoid taking the easy way and being methodical. We should not turn a practice into a procedure. That is to follow rules. We need to exercise our spirit in order to avoid being methodical. Whether we are reading the Bible, pray-reading, or singing, we should avoid following a procedure. Instead, we should always open to the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to flow freely. What we do must be in spirit, not according to the letter. We must have an open spirit, and we must be in spirit because the reality of the church is in our spirit.
In order to have the reality of the church in our spirit, we must first be filled with God. When we are filled with God, our mind will be occupied with the Spirit, and we will be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23). In order to have the reality of the church, we also need to put on the new man. When we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, we put on the church as the new man (v. 24) and live in the church. The new man is the church; hence, to put on the new man is to put on the church and to live in the church. When we have our living and walk in the spirit, we are in the church life. This is what the Lord desires to gain.
The Lord does not want merely a group of people who are saved and who pursue Him by reading the Bible, praying, and attending meetings. This will not satisfy His heart. We must be filled in our spirit with the Spirit and allow Him to occupy our whole being. This is the way that we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we put off our old manner of living, old society, and old relationships. This is also the way that we put on the new man, which is the church. The new man is a matter of our living. Hence, when we put on the new man, we are in the church life.
To have the reality of the church is to be the dwelling place of God in spirit (2:22). Our spirit is the dwelling place of God. This means that we are built together in spirit, not only in the Holy Spirit but even more in our human spirit, to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Then God will have a resting place on earth, and He will make His home in our hearts (3:17). Our living will be God’s dwelling place, that is, His resting place. God is in heaven, but He is longing to gain a dwelling place on earth. When we are God’s dwelling place, we will not be occupied with sins, nor will we love the world or care for our self. We will be built together in the new man to be a dwelling place of God in spirit.
When we have the reality of the church, we will not only be God’s dwelling place but also His army, and we will fight the spiritual warfare (6:10-20). This spiritual warfare will be fought in our spirit by means of all prayer and petition, taking the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God. We should pray at every time in spirit. This does not refer to praying for ordinary things but to spiritual warfare, that is, dealing with God’s enemy with prayer and using prayer to deal with the authority of darkness. On the one hand, the church is God’s dwelling place for Him to make His home, and on the other hand, the church is an army that fights for God in order to hasten the coming of His kingdom.
This is the reality of the church. This reality is Christ, and it is Christ being mingled with us. The reality of the church is our living together in spirit to become the dwelling place of God and the army of God. The reality of the church is entirely a matter of the spirit.
May the Lord open our eyes to see that the reality of the church is in our spirit. We need to drop our procedures, methods, rituals, regulations, and practices. In our daily life we must live in the spirit and allow the Lord to be our person. Instead of following methods or ordinances in the meetings, every saint should function according to the Spirit. We do not need to sing first or to pray first or even to read the Bible first. When we read the Bible, we do not need to follow a particular method. All our activities should be in our mingled spirit. Then the Lord will be expressed, and He will gain a dwelling place and an army. This is what the Lord desires to gain today.
This does not mean that we should not read the Bible or pray. We should read the Bible with our spirit, and we should pray with our spirit. We must do everything in our spirit. Then our meeting life and our daily life will be one living rather than two detached lives. Our meetings will be the expression of our living. Then our meetings will not be a performance; they will be a testimony.
May the Lord have mercy on us, and may His precious blood cover us so that we learn to turn to our spirit and practice dropping everything old. If we exercise to live in our spirit in our daily life, everything we do in the meetings will be according to the Spirit.
