Scripture Reading: John 4:23-24; Rom. 1:9; 8:6
Among God's children, there are many who have a strong desire to serve the Lord yet who regretfully have not found the proper way to serve Him. They are not off in doctrine, and they are not wrong in their conduct. They are wrong in the way they serve the Lord. What does this mean? What is the problem? The question that faces us is whether our service issues from our mind or from our inner being. Every service among God's children should issue from their inner feeling. (This inner feeling does not refer to the feelings of the soul but the feelings of the spirit.) Be it prayer, studying the Bible, preaching, or any spiritual pursuit, everything has to issue from one's inner feeling. Even our knowledge of ourselves must be based on our inner feeling. If our life and work issue from our mind, we are at a dead end as far as our spiritual progress is concerned. We may use our mind in ordinary affairs, but in our service to God, we must use our spirit. In spiritual matters, the first thing we have to do is act according to the feeling of our spirit; the function of our mind comes later.
We cannot serve God according to our mind. We must serve Him according to our inner feeling. This is not just a matter of doing the right thing but of having the right source. Preaching, prayer, and Bible study are all right things. But if we preach, pray, and study according to our mind, we are doing the right thing with the wrong source. Our way is the wrong way. Brothers and sisters, we should follow our inner feeling to pray. We should follow our inner feeling to read the Bible. We should follow our inner feeling to preach the gospel and teach the truth. The most precious thing among God's children is the ability to live and work according to our inner feeling. We may have shortcomings, but as long as the source is right and the way is right, eventually we will be trimmed and become acceptable to God. Therefore, we first have to be concerned with the source of the things, not the things themselves. It is not a question of what we do, but by what source we do them. All our service to God should originate from the spirit.
It is all right for us to engage in academic study with our mind. But in order to contact God and touch Him, the mind is the wrong organ to use. We contact God with our spirit. For example, if we touch an electrical current with a piece of wood, no electricity will come through. But if we touch it with a piece of wire, immediately there will be an electrical current. If our prayer, Bible reading, gospel preaching, and truth teaching is the same as touching an electrical current with a wooden stick, nothing will happen because we are using the wrong means. In every spiritual matter, we have to look to God and sense the feeling He puts within us in our spirit. We should be concerned only with this. If our head starts spinning and our judgment springs from our mind whenever we encounter a spiritual problem, we have no spiritual value before God. Brothers and sisters, there are two ways. One is the way of the mind, and the other is the way of the inner feeling. The way of the mind will never make others touch God. Only the way of the inner feeling will make others touch God. When we stand up among the brothers and sisters to say something, we must be careful not to initiate anything from our mind. Before we stand up, we should ask God to cleanse all of our defilement with His Son's blood and ask for His anointing. We should say whatever our inner feeling directs us to say. Even if the words are faltering and perhaps incoherent, others will still receive the benefit. But if our speaking comes only from our mind, nothing will avail even when it follows a very logical sequence.
Brothers and sisters, spiritual things are carried out according to the inner feeling. When you kneel down by your bed to pray according to the utterance that is in your inner being, the more you pray the more you will touch God. While you are praying in this way, your mind may suddenly turn to a different direction, and you will not be able to go on with your prayer anymore; the utterance will stop. When you pray in spirit and in truth, it is like touching an electrical current with a wire; electricity will pass through it. But when you pray with your mind, it will be like touching an electrical current with a piece of wood; nothing will happen. A spiritual man is one who touches spiritual things with his spirit and who exercises his spirit to touch God. In the eyes of God, a fallen man is one who walks, speaks, and acts according to what he thinks.
Whenever something happens, the first thing you should do is to find out where you are. Are you in your mind, or are you living by the feeling in your spirit? You may ponder in your mind that you will move if things turn out to your advantage and stop if things do not turn out to your advantage. In the eyes of man, you may be very smart. However, the question is not whether you should do this but what is your source. If you find your mind spinning around like an electric fan or running madly like an unbridled horse, you can be sure that you are wrong. You must first ask God to bridle your thoughts, and then you must listen to what your spirit has to say. If your spirit feels that something is right, it does not matter whether you are unable to explain what has happened. But if your spirit feels that something is wrong, it will not work even if you can convince yourself that it is right.
Suppose two brothers who are having an argument go to another brother for arbitration. If the arbitrating brother lives in his mind, he will only concentrate on the arguments put forward by the two, and it will be easy for him to complicate the matter with his own emotions, likes, and dislikes. After listening to the case, he may say that one is right and the other is wrong; however, the judgment has been based on reasoning. Brothers and sisters, a Christian who lives according to his mind always lives in the realm of reasoning even though the reasoning he has may not even be correct. He argues because of his reasoning, and he make judgments according to his reasoning. As a consequence, those who reason will reason more, and those who disagree will disagree more. Two brothers argue because they have fallen into their reasoning. If another brother prays for God to turn him from his mind to his spirit and sense his spirit, he will help the other two and turn them from their reasoning. We must realize that our thoughts bring in our reasoning, and our reasoning easily convinces our emotion and flesh. Once a man touches his mind, he touches his emotion, and once he touches his emotion, his flesh is provoked. If we do this, we will not help our brothers; on the contrary, we will damage them. We must learn the proper lesson. May the Lord be merciful to us and save us into our spirit, so that we can sense what to do or say with our spirit. Only then will we be able to help others, and only then will we solve the problems of others.
Finally, I will mention two things. First, if we desire to learn to live before God in this way, we have to learn the dealing of the cross. The cross deals with our natural life, our natural thoughts, and our natural emotions. If our natural thoughts and emotions are not dealt with, it will be difficult for us to live in the spirit. When something happens, and we confront it with our mind or emotion, we usually say, "How can this be!" This shows that we are living by our reasons. If we live by our reasons, surely we are living in our mind. Those who live in their mind invariably live according to the impulse of their emotions. If we live in the spirit, we will not reason according to opinions or speak according to emotions. Those who are under the control of God's Spirit have experienced the dealing of the cross.
The second point is the cleansing of the blood. In order to learn to live according to the sense in the spirit you must trust in the cleansing of the blood all the time. The more you are cleansed by the blood, the more you will shine. If some defilement in you has not yet been dealt with by the blood, you will be dull and dark. You must allow the blood to cleanse you. Only then will you have light.
These two things — the dealing of the cross and the cleansing of the blood — are necessary lessons for those who aspire to serve the Lord. A Christian does not live in the spirit primarily because his mind and emotion have not yet been dealt with and because his defilement has not been cleansed by the blood. As a result, he becomes a foolish Christian, one who never allows God to turn him to his spiritual senses. We must pay attention to the dealing of the cross and the cleansing of the blood. Then we will realize how much we have lived in the mind and how much we have ignored the senses in our spirit.
Some may say, "I do not have any inner feeling." Let me say this: If a person does not have any inner feeling, he is probably not yet regenerated. If he is regenerated, God's Spirit has surely enlivened his spirit, and he will surely have inner feelings. Even though he may be regenerated, there may be some kind of sickness within him; a sick man sometimes loses his feelings. When this happens, he will need the dealing of the cross and the cleansing of the blood.
A person who lives in the spirit is acceptable to God. May the Lord be gracious to us. May He guide us and lead us to live according to the sense in our spirit so that we can serve Him in the spirit.
