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In John 3:6 we read, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This verse speaks of two distinct spirits — one is capitalized, and the other is not. The first occurrence of the word refers to the Holy Spirit of God, and the second, to the human spirit of man. That which is born of the Holy Spirit is the human spirit. Another verse showing these two spirits is John 4:24: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.” Again, the first Spirit is capitalized, and the second is not. We must worship God, who is the Spirit, in our human spirit. Romans 8:16 further confirms the existence of two spirits: “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” The pronoun our definitely designates the human spirit and removes any ground to doubt the reality of both the divine Spirit and the human spirit.
In Romans 8:9 and 10 we read, “The Spirit of God dwells in you...But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead..., the spirit is life.” The King James Version capitalizes spirit in verse 10, but better translations, such as the American Standard Version, render spirit here with a small letter s. Why do we point this out? It is because Christians have very little knowledge about man’s spirit. Much attention is given to the Holy Spirit, but the human spirit, the residence and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, is almost entirely neglected. Suppose someone wants to visit me. He must first find where I live. If he cannot locate my home, he will have to forfeit his visit. Although there is much talk about the Holy Spirit, yet we do not know where He dwells. Romans 8:9 refers without a doubt to the Holy Spirit, but verse 10 speaks of the human spirit. “Though the body is dead..., the spirit is life.” Of course, the Holy Spirit cannot be compared with our body. The comparison must be between the human body and the human spirit, not between the human body and the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul said, “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son” (1:9). Our usual thought is that God is served in the Holy Spirit, but here is a verse declaring that God is served in our human spirit. In Galatians 5:16 the phrase walk by the Spirit contains the definite article the and capitalizes Spirit. Many Christians, due to the rendering of the King James Version, think this verse means to walk by the Holy Spirit, but it means to walk by the Holy Spirit from within our spirit.
Bible translators have found it very difficult to decide whether spirit in some passages refers to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit. The reason for this difficulty is that in the believer the Holy Spirit and the human spirit are mingled together as one spirit. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). We are one spirit with the Lord, which clearly indicates that our spirit is mingled with the Holy Spirit. Such a mingled spirit makes it difficult for anyone to say whether this is the Holy Spirit or the human spirit. The two are mingled as one. We may say that it is the Holy Spirit, and yet we can also say that it is the human spirit of the saints. Sometimes we make a beverage by mingling two kinds of juices — pineapple and grapefruit. After it is mixed, it is difficult to tell what kind of juice it is. Is it pineapple, or is it grapefruit? We would have to call it pineapple-grapefruit. In the New Testament it is wonderful to see that the two spirits, the Holy Spirit mingled with our spirit, are one spirit.
In the first chapter we saw that God the Father is in us (Eph. 4:6), Christ is in us (2 Cor. 13:5), and the Holy Spirit is in us (Rom. 8:11). All three persons of the Triune God are in us. But where within us is the Triune God? In what part? It is so clear, beyond any ground of argument, that Christ today is in our spirit, and we have the Scriptures that confirm this fact. We should not be so vague, like many who say, “Oh, the Lord is in you, and the Lord is in me.” The last verse of 2 Timothy definitely states that Christ is in our spirit. “The Lord be with your spirit” (4:22). In order for Christ to be in our spirit, He must first be Spirit; next, we must have a spirit; finally, these two spirits must be mingled as one spirit. If the Lord is not the Spirit, how could He be in our spirit, and how could we be one spirit with Him?
In order to locate the human spirit, we need to divide the soul from the spirit. “The word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). God’s word is a sharp sword to pierce our being, to divide our soul from our spirit.
For example, we are told in 1 Corinthians 3 that we are the temple of God. God’s temple, according to the Old Testament, is portrayed in three parts: the first is the outer court, the second is the Holy Place, and the third is the Holy of Holies, the most holy place.
We know that God was in His temple, but in what part? Was He in the outer court or in the Holy Place? No. He was in the Holy of Holies. There in the Holy of Holies dwelt the shekinah presence of God. In the outer court was the altar, which is a type of the cross, and directly behind the altar was the laver, which in type is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Place included the table of the bread of the Presence, the lampstand, and the incense altar. But what was in the Holy of Holies? It is the Ark, which typifies Christ. Therefore, Christ was in the Holy of Holies, and God’s presence, the shekinah glory of God, was there also.
The Scriptures point out that we too are the temple (v. 16). We, as tripartite beings, are also composed of three parts — the body, the soul, and the spirit. But in which part of our being does the Triune God dwell? Second Timothy 4:22 states clearly that the Lord is in our spirit. Our spirit is the very Holy of Holies. The typology of the Old Testament temple presents a very clear picture. Christ and God’s presence are in the Holy of Holies. Today this type of the temple of God is fulfilled in us. We are of three parts: our body corresponds to the outer court, our soul to the Holy Place, and our human spirit to the Holy of Holies, which is the very residence of Christ and God’s presence. This is illustrated in the following diagram:
“Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). What is the Holy of Holies for us to enter today while we are here on earth? Look at the above diagram. Our human spirit is the Holy of Holies, which is God’s residence, the very chamber in which God and Christ dwell. If we would find God and Christ, there is no need for us to go to heaven. God in Christ is so available, for He is in our spirit.
For this reason we have to divide our soul from our spirit (Heb. 4:12). If we are unable to divide the soul from the spirit, we simply cannot contact the Lord. Look at the picture. If the high priest was unable to locate the Holy of Holies, his efforts to contact God would only have ended in failure. First, he had to enter the outer court, and from the outer court he had to enter the Holy Place, and from the Holy Place he would finally enter the Holy of Holies. There he would meet God and see the shekinah glory of God’s presence.
We must learn to discern our spirit from our soul. The soul conceals and covers the spirit, just as the bones conceal the marrow. It is easy to see the bones, but not the marrow hidden within. If we are going to get the marrow, we have to break the bones. Sometimes the marrow has to be scraped from the bones. Oh, how our spirit sticks to our soul! Our spirit is hidden and concealed within it. The soul is easily recognized, but the spirit is difficult to know. We know a little about the Holy Spirit, but we do not know the human spirit. Why? It is because the human spirit is concealed in the soul. This is why the soul needs to be broken, and just as the joints are the strongest part of the bones, so our soul is very strong. We have a spirit, but our soul covers it up. God’s Word as a sharp sword must pierce our soul in order to break it away from the spirit.
“There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God...Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience” (vv. 9, 11). What is this rest? We have to look at another type in the Old Testament to discover its meaning. After the Israelites were delivered and saved from the land of Egypt, they were brought into the wilderness with the intention that they should go on into the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan was their land of rest, a type of the all-inclusive Christ. Christ is the good land of Canaan, and He is our rest. If we are going to enter into the rest, we must enter into Christ. But where is Christ today? We answer that He is in our spirit. The Israelites, who were delivered out of Egypt, instead of going on into Canaan, wandered for many years in the wilderness. What does this typify? It means that many Christians after being saved are simply wandering in the soul. The reason the book to the Hebrews was written is that many Hebrew Christians were saved, but they were wandering in their soul. They would not press on from the wilderness into the good land — that is, into Christ, who dwelt in their spirit. We must not continue to wander in our soul but press on to enter into our spirit, where Christ is our rest.
Let us illustrate further by the following diagram:
In ancient times all the people of Israel had access to the outer court, but only the priests could enter the Holy Place. Furthermore, into the Holy of Holies only one, the high priest, could enter, and that only once a year. Moreover, of all the Israelites who were saved and brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, very few went on into the good land of Canaan.
Even though we may have been saved for years, we must ask ourselves whether we are presently a Christian living in the body, in the soul, or in the spirit. Are we now in Egypt, in the wilderness, or in the good land of Canaan? Ask the Lord and search yourself in order to be clear where you are. Frankly, many Christians are wandering all day in the soul, that is, in the wilderness. In the morning they have smiling faces, but by afternoon they are sorrowful with long faces. Yesterday it seems they were in the heavens, but today they are down. They are wandering in the soul, the wilderness, without rest, circling in the same rut day after day. They may have been following the Lord for twenty years, but they are still going in circles, just as the people of Israel, who wandered for thirty-eight years with no improvement and no progress. Why? It is because they are in the soul. When we are in the soul, we are in the wilderness.
This is why the writer to the Hebrews emphasized the need to divide the soul from the spirit. The word of God must pierce us so that we may know how to press on from the soul into the good land and the Holy of Holies of our human spirit. A soulish believer is one wandering in the wilderness of the soul, where there is no rest.
The high priest had to pass through the veil in order to enter into the Holy of Holies, so the veil, which typifies the flesh (10:20), must be rent and broken. Furthermore, the people of Israel had to cross the river Jordan in order to enter the good land. Under the waters of the Jordan they buried twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and another twelve stones, representing the resurrected Israelites, were brought over into the good land. The old generation of Israel was buried in the death waters of the Jordan River. All of this typifies that the natural man, the soulish life, and the old nature must be broken as the veil and buried as the old man. Then we can enter into the Holy of Holies and into the good land in order to enjoy Christ as our rest.
These pictures will help us to realize that God’s economy is the Triune God in our human spirit. This Triune God in the one Spirit has taken our spirit as His residence and His dwelling place. So we must learn to discern our spirit from our soul. The problem is that we Christians are full of many natural thoughts. After we have been saved, we think that we have to be good and to do good. But God in His economy intends to work Himself into us as our life and as everything to us. We must forget everything else and concentrate upon the indwelling Christ in our spirit. We must not be distracted from the aim and mark of this indwelling Christ. Forget about being good and doing good deeds. Drop all those good things and enter the Holy of Holies. Many Christians are busily working in the outer court. They do not know that God’s intention for them is to go into the Holy of Holies, where they can contact God, be filled with God, be occupied with God, be one with God in everything and have God as their all. Discern your spirit and fellowship with this indwelling One. Let Him take over and possess you.
Another religious distraction is that after we are saved, we feel that we are weak, that we need strength and power. Consequently, we pray that the Holy Spirit might be poured upon us that we might be made strong and powerful. Although there is some ground for us to do this, yet the main line of God’s economy is that we follow Him, not in this outward empowering but in our spirit, where the Triune God dwells. Therefore, the most vital thing is for us to know our spirit and to deny our soul. We need to reject our soul and to walk according to our spirit, because the Triune God is in our spirit. This mark of God’s economy is missed by most Christians — even the seeking ones.
Again we ask, where is this Triune God today? Praise the Lord, this wonderful One, the Triune God, is today in our spirit. We have Him! Yes, we have Him in our spirit! This wonderful, all-inclusive Spirit is in us! If we are a believer, we have the Triune God in our human spirit. Our need today is to discern our spirit from our soul. When we know the proper way to discern the spirit from the soul, we will hit the mark of contacting this Triune God.
In the mechanics of a radio there is a receiver, a receiving organ. When we tune the radio accurately, the electric waves in the air will hit that receiver. Today the Triune God is the spiritual electricity. He is the electric waves throughout the universe, and we are the “radio.” What is the receiver within us? It is our human spirit. We tune our human spirit rightly when we have a broken and contrite spirit, when we are repentant before God and open unto Him. If we have such a spirit, the Triune God, who is the wonderful Spirit and who is the spiritual electricity, will immediately hit our spirit. All we need to know is how to tune the receiver, how to tune our human spirit, discerning the spirit from all other things such as our thinking, our emotions, and our choices. When we discern our spirit from all these soulish things, then we will know how to contact the divine Spirit, who is the wonderful, all-inclusive Spirit of the Triune God. Then we will know the Lord’s word as the sharp sword, piercing to divide our soul from our spirit, and we will realize how to experience, enjoy, and partake of the indwelling Christ all the time.
