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I. The Spirit of life being the compound Spirit:
А. Being a mingling of the divinity, humanity, human living, death, and resurrection of Christ with the Spirit of God to become the holy ointment — Exo. 30:23-25.
Exodus 30:23-25
You also take the finest spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred fifty shekels, and of fragrant calamus two hundred fifty shekels, (24) and of cassia five hundred shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. (25) And you shall make it a holy anointing oil, a fragrant ointment compounded according to the work of a compounder; it shall be a holy anointing oil.
B. The supplying element of this compound Spirit being bountiful and excellent — Phil. 1:19b.
Philippians 1:19b
...the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
II. The law of this Spirit of life being the consummated Triune God — Rev. 22:17a:
Revelation 22:17a
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come!
А. Becoming the law of life with its natural life capacity and its spontaneous life power — Rom. 8:2a.
Romans 8:2a
For the law of the Spirit of life...in Christ Jesus...
B. Freeing the believers from the law of sin and of death, solving for them the problem of sin and of death — Rom. 8:2b.
Romans 8:2b
...has freed me...from the law of sin and of death.
In Paul’s Epistles and especially in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians, we see that before the ages, that is, in eternity past, God had a desire and a pleasure. His desire and pleasure became His motive, which gave Him a purpose, a plan, and an arrangement in eternity. Paul called this purpose, plan, and arrangement God’s economy. God’s economy is to gain a group of people and to work Himself into them so that He can be their life and everything to them and can mingle Himself as one with them in their living. In this way He lives within them, and they live out His glory. By this He is expressed.
This expression is, on the one hand, individual and, on the other hand, corporate. Individually speaking, we the believers have God’s life to live God’s glorious living, that is, a living that lives out God Himself. Corporately speaking, when the saints come together, they live a living that glorifies God, which is the church life. This corporate expression is what God is really after.
In order to accomplish this economy, God must be triune. He is not merely God, but He is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We call this the Divine Trinity. The Father is the source; the Son is the expression, manifested among us; and the Spirit is the reaching to us and the entrance into us of the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, the Son becomes the Spirit, and the Spirit enters into us to be the reality of the Triune God. When the Spirit comes, the Son comes, and the Father also comes. Hence, the Spirit is the totality of the Divine Trinity and is also the ultimate consummation of the Divine Trinity. The Father is expressed in the Son. The Son is realized as the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God coming to us and entering into us to be our life. He is mingled with us and shares with us the same living.
In the New Testament the first book that speaks expressly about this subject is the Gospel of John. At the very beginning it tells us that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (1:1). One day this Word became flesh, bringing with Him grace and reality in fullness (v. 14). In addition, this Word is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (v. 29). He is also the bronze serpent that was lifted up and that destroyed Satan (3:14). He is even the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. Through His death and resurrection the divine life was released from within Him, and it entered into us, the believers, producing the many grains (12:24) that are ground into flour and made into a loaf. This loaf is the Body of Christ.
Furthermore, when He entered into resurrection, He changed His form from that of the flesh to that of the Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45 says that this Christ has become the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is also the Spirit of life described in Romans 8:2. This means that He is the Spirit and He is life as well. On the night of the resurrection the Lord Jesus came into the midst of the disciples and appeared to them. He greeted them and breathed into them a holy breath, that they would receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-22). The Word who was God in the beginning became flesh, passed through death, entered into resurrection, and ultimately became this holy breath, which is the Holy Spirit. Today He is such a One in the universe. He is the holy breath, the Holy Spirit, the God who has entered into us to be our life. If we receive Him, we will be regenerated; that is, we will receive the life of God in addition to having our life in the flesh. He is our holy breath; we can breathe Him in. He is also the living water; we can drink Him in. He is the spiritual food in God’s word; we can eat Him. Moreover, we can abide in Him and can allow Him to abide in us. In this way we will grow, we can bear the fruit of life, and out from us there will flow rivers of living water.
There is a hymn that says, “Spirit begets spirit, spirit worships the Spirit, / So that the Spirit fills me; / The Spirit also has become the word with life abundant, / Flowing out as rivers of living water.” This is the Gospel of John. God’s economy is very deep and profound, yet John used very simple words to explain these profound things. However, he did not touch the limit or the peak. Hence, in addition to him, there is Paul. Paul’s fourteen Epistles, found after the Gospel of John, speak of God’s economy. He tells us in a rich and profound way how the Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — passed through the many processes to come to us, to be with us, and even to enter into us to be our life. He lives in us so that we can become the means for Him to be lived out. When we come together, we are the church, living a life that glorifies God and expresses God.
We can say that the main thing Paul’s Epistles cover is the mystery of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. At the beginning of Romans, Paul speaks in a simple way about God’s creation of the heavens and the earth. After His creation of man, man became fallen before God and has a history of sin. God then gave the law to expose man’s sinful condition before Him. Under God’s condemnation man appears corrupted and poor. Thank God, Christ came and accomplished redemption for us. He was resurrected in the Father’s glory, and He delivered us out of sin and death so that we can live in the newness of God’s life. This is what Romans 1 through 6 covers. From chapter 7 on, Paul begins to speak in depth about the mystery.
He tells us that with the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the Father is in the Son, the Son has become the Spirit, who is the Spirit of life, and this Spirit of life has a law. We know that when we throw objects into the air, they will come back down by themselves. This is because of gravitational force, which is a law. Based on his spiritual experience Paul discovered that there is a law in the universe, which is the law of the Spirit of life. Romans 7 and 8 present a clear explanation of this law. In these two chapters four laws are mentioned. The first is the law of good in man’s mind. When God created man, He created him according to His own image, that is, according to what He is: love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Hence, the man He created was the same as He is, having love, light, holiness, and righteousness within. The only difference is that His love, light, holiness, and righteousness are divine, whereas our love, light, holiness, and righteousness are human. Man was created by God in this way, with the human life and the law of this human life.
Every living creature has its law of life. For example, when the peach tree bears fruit, surely they are peaches. This is the law of the peach tree. The peach tree brings forth peaches, and the pear tree brings forth pears. The cat begets cats, and the dog begets dogs. Every life has its own law. The human life created by God is the highest life among all creatures. Of course, this life also has its law. Although our ancestor sinned and caused man to fall into sin, deep within us there is still love, light, holiness, and righteousness. We do not want to be wrong, and we do not want to be in darkness. We want to do good, and we desire to act in light. This shows us, indeed, that man wants to do good. On the one hand, we are corrupt. On the other hand, we still want to do good. Deep within every one of us, there is a heart for doing good. This is what Paul meant by the law of good in our mind.
Second, there is the law of sin in man’s flesh. After man fell by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was another law in his flesh. This law is also a life, but it is neither God’s life nor man’s life. Rather, it is the evil life of Satan. When this life enters into man, he has Satan’s nature, and he inherits another law, which is the law of evil and sin. Paul says in Romans 7:19-21, “I do not do the good which I will; but the evil which I do not will, this I practice. But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it out but sin that dwells in me. I find then the law with me who wills to do the good, that is, the evil is present with me.” Moreover, this law was constantly warring with the law of good in Paul’s mind, making him a captive and causing him to do evil (v. 23).
As far as God’s creation is concerned, we are good. But as far as man’s fall is concerned, we are evil. Among the ancient Chinese philosophers, some said that man’s nature is good, and others said that man’s nature is evil. Actually, both are right. In a fallen man there are these two opposing laws, one that compels him to do good, and the other that compels him to do evil. However, man does not necessarily know himself in this way. For this reason God gave the law — the Ten Commandments — which exposes man’s true condition. The law of these Ten Commandments is the third kind of law. The sum total of this law is that God is a God of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. He forbids man to worship idols, and He tells man to honor his parents and not to kill, steal, commit fornication, or be covetous. In other words, He wants man to have love, light, holiness, and righteousness. God uses this law to expose man from without. After man is exposed, he becomes willing to walk by the law of God. However, when he sets out to keep the law, he discovers that it is not up to himself. He fails, and he is made a captive of Satan to do that which he does not will. He wills to love, but instead, he hates. He wills to be in the light, but instead, he is in darkness. He wills to be holy, but instead, he is defiled by worldliness. He wills to be righteous, but instead, he becomes unjust and unrighteous. Therefore, Paul draws a conclusion: “To will is present with me, but to work out the good is not” (v. 18b). Again he says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (v. 24).
Paul finally knew himself, but he did not remain there. He discovered that in him there was still a fourth law. The first law is the law of good in man’s mind. The second is the law of evil in man’s flesh. The third is the law of God given by God outside of man. The fourth is found only in those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the law of the Spirit of life. Because we are created beings, we have the human law of good. Because we have become fallen, we have the evil law of Satan. Because we are before God, we also have God’s law. Prior to our believing in the Lord, there were these three laws: one in the mind, that desires to do good; one in the flesh, that compels us to do evil; and one outside of us, that puts a demand on us. God requires that we have love, light, holiness, and righteousness, but we cannot have them. For this reason we repent, confess our sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus. Once we believe in Him, God comes into us to be our life. With this life there is a law. It is not the law of good or the law of evil. Neither is it the law of God outside of man. Rather, it is the law of the Spirit of life. This law of the Spirit of life is the Triune God Himself. The living person of the Triune God is our life within us. This life has a law, which is called the law of the Spirit of life. Life, the Spirit, and the law — these three are just one thing. This law is the Spirit, and this Spirit is life.
Exodus 30:23-25 speaks of the compound holy ointment. The compound holy ointment was composed of one hin of olive oil with four spices. The one hin of oil signifies the unique God. Olive oil signifies the Spirit of God flowing out through the pressing of the death of Christ. It was the base of the ointment, and it was the basic ingredient in which the spices were mingled. The four spices signify humanity in God’s creation with the precious death of Christ, the sweetness and effectiveness of His death, the resurrection of Christ, and the power and fragrance of resurrection, respectively. Hence, this compound ointment signifies the Spirit produced out of the Lord’s death and resurrection. In this Spirit there is divinity, humanity, the Lord’s death, resurrection, and His redemption. The supplying element of this compound Spirit is both bountiful and excellent (Phil. 1:19b).
Today we the sinners need only to repent, believe in the Lord Jesus, and call on His name. The all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit will enter into us to be our life, and there will be a wonderful change. By this we will be regenerated. We will no longer be ourselves, but we will have the Lord Jesus within us. Before we are saved, we are just our own selves. But after we are saved, though we may still look like the same persons, actually, within us, another One is added, who is the Lord Jesus. As far as our natural constitution goes, we are all different from one another. There are the Malaysians, the Chinese, and the Americans. But after we have believed in the Lord and been saved, as far as the inner man goes, we are all the same; we are all people with God within us. God is the Spirit, life, and also the law within us. Now, within every Christian there is a law, which is the law of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit produced through the Triune God passing through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. This law of the Spirit of life is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God (Rev. 22:17a).
We know that an airplane can fly smoothly because it has power that overcomes the force of gravity. If I am on an airplane and am seated properly with the safety belt fastened in place, would I not be a fool if I still hold on to the seat tightly and fear that I will fall down? In the same way, after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, it is wrong for us to try to do anything by our own effort. To believe in the Lord Jesus can be compared to riding on an airplane. All we have to do is to sit in our seats at ease. We do not need to try to fly, nor do we need to try to hold on to anything, because we are not the ones who are flying, but it is the airplane that is flying. The same is true with spiritual matters. Once we are on the airplane, who is Christ, we should not try to fly anymore. Instead, we should let Christ fly us away. We should abandon all the struggling and striving and allow Christ to be the Lord and everything to us.
In our daily life we often pray to the Lord for victory and revival. This is like trying to fly by ourselves. We should pray, “Lord, You are my revival. You are my victory. I cannot revive myself, nor can I be victorious.” Do not pray for victory anymore. Instead, you should be like Paul, praising and thanking the Lord. He says in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ.” We must always remember that we have boarded Christ, our “airplane.” This airplane has its law, and once the law begins to operate, the airplane flies into the air. I am afraid that, doctrinally speaking, we are allowing Christ to fly for us, but actually, we are still trying to fly by ourselves. This is the reason we always fail.
The law of the Spirit of life in Romans 8 has a capacity that operates in us daily to revive us and to allow us to overcome. I have no intention to exhort you to be revived every morning or to overcome every day by yourselves. But I do want to remind you of the two simple words in the New Testament: in Christ. Today Christ Himself is the law of the Spirit of life within us. We do not need to be revived and to overcome by ourselves, and we do not need to strive by ourselves to do good. All we need to say is, “Lord, I love You.” The first thing that we should say every morning is, “Lord, I love You. I offer myself to You.” This matches the teaching of Romans. Romans 6:13 tells us to present ourselves to God and to present our members as weapons of righteousness to God. If you truly present yourselves to God and cooperate with Him, in your daily life you will realize that you are in Christ and that there is a law operating within you. This law has a natural life capacity and a spontaneous life power (8:2).
It is very easy for us to be weak and sometimes to be confused. For this reason we have to call on the Lord Jesus continually. Whenever we are weak or feel lacking, we should call, “O Lord Jesus.” As long as we would call softly from our heart and fellowship with Him, we will come alive within. This is our Christian life. In this chapter I wish to give an impression, which is that every saved person should be one who presents himself to the Lord. Hence, every morning when we wake up, we have to renew an exercise of saying, “Lord, I love You. I want to present myself to You.” We should do this in the morning and should continue this during the day. When we encounter difficulties or trials, we should especially learn to call from the depths of our being, “O Lord Jesus!” If we contact the Lord this way, we will come alive within and will be strengthened.
In our daily life it is difficult for us not to come into conflict with others or not to encounter unhappy incidences. How can we overcome in these circumstances? The way is not to make resolutions or to struggle but to call on the Lord. Every morning when we wake up, we should say, “Lord, I love You. I give myself to You.” After this we should open the Bible to pray-read two verses. In this way, even if there are things in our daily life that may stir up our temper, we will not be stirred up, and even if there are things that may cause anxiety, we will not be anxious. This is the Christian life. Do not think that this is too simple, and do not think that this is superstitious. Even more, do not think that this is a mental illusion. In the universe there is only one name. The more we call on it, the sweeter we will feel, and the more we will overcome. This is our Lord Jesus. If we call on Him a little, we will be overcomers. There is no need for us to beg or to ask the Lord for help. All we have to do is to present ourselves to the Lord and to cooperate with Him, allowing the law of the Spirit of life to have a chance to operate within us.
We were born in sin, and we grew up in death. The law of sin and of death is within us. But we have been delivered from it already. Thank the Lord, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (v. 2). We have been delivered from the sphere of Adam and have been transferred into the realm of Christ. In Christ there is not the law of sin and of death but the law of the Spirit of life. Now everything has become a matter of a law. We do not need to struggle or to strive. We only need to remain in Christ, to present ourselves to Him, to give Him the freedom, and to enjoy Him. In this way He will gain our cooperation and will operate in us spontaneously and gently. By this we will have peace, joy, and victory.
The Divine Trinity has passed through many processes for His divine dispensing. First, He came from heaven on high to the earth and was conceived in the womb of a virgin. There He remained for nine months according to the law of the human life, and He was born as a God-man. Because of King Herod’s jealousy, He escaped to Egypt and later returned to settle in Galilee, living in the little town of Nazareth. In a hidden way He lived there for thirty years. No one heard of Him or knew Him. When He was thirty years old, He came out to fulfill His ministry, which was to seek and to save the lost sinners and to dispense God into them.
One day He was returning from Judea to Galilee. According to His foreknowledge and predestination, He went to save a lost sinner, an immoral Samaritan woman. For this He purposely went through Samaria and waited for the woman by the well at Sychar. He knew that the woman would go to draw water at that hour. When the Lord Jesus met her, He asked her for water in order to point out her real need. He spoke to her about her husband. By this He touched her conscience so that she would repent for her sins. In addition, the Lord showed her that true worship is to drink of God as the living water and to contact in spirit God who is the Spirit. The Chinese way of worship is to kneel down three times with the head touching the ground nine times. The Arab way of worship is to prostrate the whole body. But our God does not want us to worship in either of these ways. He wants us to worship in spirit and truthfulness, which is to drink of Him as the thirst-quenching living water. If we drink of the water from the well of Jacob, we will be thirsty again. Our thirst can never be satisfied by the earthly water. Only God’s gift of Jesus as our living water can give us satisfaction in life.
Hence, every Lord’s Day our breaking of bread for the remembrance of the Lord is not a form of religious worship but an eating, drinking, and enjoyment of God. The symbols on the table — the bread and the cup — signify the Lord’s body that was broken for us and the new covenant that was enacted by the Lord’s blood. They are there for us to eat, drink, and enjoy. We do this in remembrance of the Lord (Matt. 26:26-28; Luke 22:19). Hence, the Lord does want us to remember Him, but He does not want us to kneel down and to think about Him in silence. Rather, He wants us to open ourselves up and to contact Him with our spirit, eating and drinking Him in spirit. This is the true remembrance of Him.
In the past chapters we have seen that in eternity past God had an economy. In order to accomplish this economy, He passed through many processes to dispense Himself to us. From His incarnation to His becoming the life-giving Spirit, every step was for the accomplishment of His dispensing. Take the crucifixion for an example. Man hanged Him on the cross for six hours. In the first three hours He was persecuted for the carrying out of God’s will. In the last three hours He was judged by God for the accomplishment of redemption on our behalf. This death was indeed a process that accomplished many works. After this He entered into death and Hades. Three days later, He resurrected. This was another process. As soon as He entered resurrection, He was transfigured to become the life-giving Spirit. By that time all the processes that He had to go through were completed.
The whole Gospel of John shows this matter clearly. At the start of the book it says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh. Later, it shows how the incarnated God-man Jesus lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. In the end He was crucified and entered Hades; then He came out again to enter into resurrection. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, who is the holy breath breathed into the disciples. In this way they all received the Holy Spirit.
Today the One whom we believe in and worship is such a One. He has become the Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, for the purpose that we would partake of His divine dispensing. This is the mysterious economy of God, which is to dispense and to distribute to God’s children all the rich elements of God. Now this God has been processed and has become a holy breath, everywhere filling the earth. Even while you are preaching the gospel to others, He is in your mouth and in your heart. He will come out of your heart and will enter the mouth of those who listen (Rom. 10:8-9). He is the Holy Spirit, the Triune God, Jesus Christ, becoming life and everything to those who believe and receive Him. He is so wonderful.
This wonderful One is in us mainly to be our life, operating and working quietly and gently in us. This can be compared to our physical life. Every day, twenty-four hours a day, it operates quietly and gently in us. While we are sitting here, an operation is working within, which is our digestion. However, we do not feel it. Whenever we feel it, that proves that there is something wrong with us. Not only is there the digestion, but there is the assimilation as well, which makes the digested food elements part of our blood and constitutes these elements as the cells and tissues of our body. When God’s Spirit works in us, He operates in a similar way.
He is coming to us not only to be our life but to be our everything, that is, to be our person. He wants to abide in us, to make home and to settle down in our whole being, so that He can become our all. He is waiting all the time within us for us to turn to Him and to receive His supply. Some always speak of the Lord’s dealing with them and His rebuking of them. But in my experience of sixty or more years of following the Lord, it seems that the Lord has never rebuked me severely. I have indeed offended Him many times. But He is always willing to supply me and to dispense Himself into me. Today the Lord is definitely living in me. He is our life to be our everything. He is our person, our Head, our Husband, and our Savior. He wants to make His home in us and to make our whole person His place of rest.
I have to ask the young ones sitting here among us: Is the Lord a guest or the host in you today? Are you His home? Our natural concept is to improve or adjust the negative or bad things. After we believed in the Lord, we thought that the Lord was here to improve us and to make us a noble person. Actually, this is not the case. Before being saved, we sinned and made mistakes easily. After someone preached the gospel to us, we realized that we were sinners and that we needed a Savior. As a result, we accepted the Lord Jesus. He has died on the cross for us and borne our sins, accomplishing redemption, and He has become our Redeemer. He is even our Savior day by day. Although we are saved, we still have many weaknesses, lusts, and passions. At the same time, we are continually faced with many trials and sufferings. For this reason we need His daily salvation so that we can be a person with God and can live a life that is above that of ordinary men.
Over twenty years ago, when I first came to the United States, I told the brothers that even if our ancestor Adam had not fallen and we had not sinned, we would still need to be regenerated. The reason for this is that God wanted to have many sons who would have His life and who would be His expression. Although He created man perfect and flawless, He Himself had not come into man and had not been joined to man. If man were merely perfect but did not have God within, this would still be short of what God wants. When God created man, He created him as a vessel. However, he was but an empty vessel. God’s purpose is to fill up this vessel with Himself. However, before God filled man up, man became defiled and corrupted. Hence, God came to redeem man and cleanse him. But this is only the means; it is not God’s goal. God’s ultimate desire is to enter into the created man to be his life so that he would gain Him and be joined and mingled with Him to live God’s living. For this purpose He first came to be a man, to “man-ize” Himself. Then He enables us to partake of His life, thus to “God-ize” us. In this way He and we become one and share one living.
This concept is not found in Christianity. Although the Bible contains this truth, those in Christianity have not been able to see it. This can be compared to reading a book. If there are words that we do not understand, no matter how many times we read through it, we will not be able to understand its true meaning, and we will not be very concerned about its significance. The ultimate purpose of God is to work Himself into us in order that He may be our life and everything to us so that one day we can become Him. But this does not mean that we can become part of the Godhead and be the same as the unique God. We have to know that although we are born of God and have God’s life to become God’s children, His house, and His household, we do not have a share in His sovereignty or His person and cannot be worshipped as God.
In church history, beginning from the second century, some church fathers who were expounding the Bible used the term deification, which means to make man God. Later, they were opposed by others and were considered as heretics. But John 1:12-13 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” We the believers are begotten of God. What is begotten of man is man, and what is begotten of God must be God. We are born of God; hence, in this sense we are God. Nevertheless, we must know that we do not share God’s person and cannot be worshipped by others. Only God Himself has the person of God and can be worshipped by man.
The traditional concept in Christianity is that God wants us, the saved ones, to be good, to be spiritual, and to be holy, but there is no concept that God wants us to be God-men. When God became flesh and came to earth, He was both God and man, a wonderful God-man, having both divinity and humanity. As for us, we are not only created by Him, but we have Him begotten into us so that every one of us has God’s life and nature, and we are now God’s children (2 Pet. 1:4). Therefore, as those begotten of God, we are all God-men.
My burden is to show you clearly that God’s economy and plan is to make Himself man and to make us, His created beings, “God” so that He is “man-ized” and we are “God-ized.” In the end He and we, we and He, all become God-men. Hence, it is not enough for us to be good men, spiritual men, or holy men. These are not what God is after. What God wants today is God-men. God does not expect us to improve ourselves, because God is not after our being good men. He wants us to be God-men. He is our life and everything to us for the purpose that we would express Him and live Him out.
When God created us, He created us in His image and according to His likeness. We are like a picture that has His image but is without His life. After we are regenerated, this picture becomes the “real” person, having His life and nature, and being the same as He is. He is God “man-ized,” and we are man “God-ized.” In the end the two become one, both being God-men. This is the divine revelation of the Bible.
For this reason we have to exercise ourselves to be God-men. To improve oneself is worth little. God is not here to improve man but to beget man. God begot us so that we can receive His life and nature and can grow in His life. When God grows within us, we grow (Col. 2:19). In order for God to increase within us, we have to exercise our spirit because every proper thing that goes on between God and man depends on the spirit. The more we exercise our spirit, the more God operates and increases within us. As a result, we grow up to become genuine God-men. This is what God is after.
