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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Tim. 4:22a; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4, 9-10; Gal. 5:25; Eph. 2:22; 1 Cor. 5:3; Rev. 1:10, 12; John 4:24; Deut. 12:5-7, 13-14
The flesh and the spirit are the real keys to our spiritual life and church life. If we mean business with the Lord for the Christian life and the church life, we have to see the flesh and the spirit. We need to realize that our flesh has been thoroughly polluted and corrupted by Satan’s presence. Regardless of how good we may be, our flesh is corrupted with Satan. But thank God that with all the fallen human beings, God has reserved the human spirit for His purpose.
It is as if God has drawn a borderline to encircle the human spirit and protect it from the corruption of the devil. This principle can be fully illustrated by the case of Job. God let Satan damage Job, but He told Satan that there was a line. Satan was allowed to go only so far. God would not let him go any further (Job 2:4-6). I believe that God did the same thing with Satan concerning the human race. God allowed Satan to damage the human race, but He allowed him to go only so far. Satan got into the human body and damaged the human soul, but God preserved the human spirit for Himself.
If we consider our past before we were saved, we can realize that although our flesh was so bad, deep within us there was another part preserved by God. When people are acting in the lusts of the flesh, something deep within them is saying, “You shouldn’t do this. This is not right.” This is the voice out of the section of their being preserved by God.
Today, with us, the saved ones, the principle is even more clear. The lusts in your flesh may urge you to go to the movies or to the department store. While you are being urged to go, there is another section of your being deep within you telling you not to go. Deep within the Lord may say, “Do you really mean that you love Me? Don’t you remember the meeting in which you stood up and told people you consecrate yourself to Christ and the church?” We do have the ugly flesh, but we also have a wonderful spirit. One part, our flesh, is fully possessed by Satan. The other part, our spirit, is kept by the Lord and for the Lord.
We must have a thorough discernment of what the flesh is and what the spirit is. A brother’s wife may prepare a meal for him that is not so good. This offends him. Strictly speaking, this offended his flesh. When you are offended in your flesh, you will immediately react. But the inner part of this brother’s being would say Hallelujah to his dear wife. There is a struggle between the flesh and the spirit (Gal. 5:16-17). If a brother sides with the lust in his flesh, he will argue with his wife. If he remains in his spirit, he will say, “Praise the Lord! Jesus is Lord, even if my meal is not so good.”
We must also see that Christ as the Son of God, even as God Himself, has taken two steps. We all have to say, “Hallelujah for the two steps that Christ has taken!” First, He took a step to become a man (John 1:14). He did not become a man who was outwardly splendid and attractive. He became what we are. We are flesh, and He became flesh. The flesh is ugly. In a sense, Christ became something ugly, not in actuality but in form, in likeness. Christ’s nature, His substance, is marvelous. It is not ugly. But the appearance of Christ while He was in the flesh was ugly. The Bible says that He did not have any form or outward comeliness and that He had no outward beauty (Isa. 53:2; 52:14). Nothing with Him was outwardly attractive.
He was in that form for the purpose of bringing our ugly flesh to the cross. He became flesh to crush the flesh and to destroy Satan in the flesh. Judicially speaking, both Satan and our flesh have been condemned once for all. But God allowed the flesh to remain with us to help us and force us to turn to Christ in our spirit. Christ took the first step to become the flesh in order to crush the flesh.
After this He took a further step. The last Adam, who was in the flesh, resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). A number of Christians oppose this truth. They say that Christ is only the Son in the Triune God. But the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15:45b tells us definitely, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” Also 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” If Christ were not the Spirit, He could not be in us. Even according to our experience, the Christ who is within us is the Spirit. The pure Word tells us that our Christ today is not merely the Lamb of God. Today He is the life-giving Spirit. Before the process of His death and resurrection, He was the Lamb of God, and today in the heavens, He still is the Lamb of God. But through the process of His death and resurrection, He is something more. Our Christ is all-inclusive. He is the life-giving Spirit. Now the Lord is the Spirit.
He is the Spirit so that He can be with us in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22a; Rom. 8:16). The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit (Gal. 6:18). He became flesh to crush our flesh. Then He took another step to become the Spirit in order to be with our spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Thank the Lord for our being one spirit with the Lord. This one spirit is a compound spirit, a mingled spirit. It is the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit.
In verses like Romans 8:4, 9-10, and Galatians 5:25, it is difficult for the translators to make a decision as to whether the spirit mentioned in these verses is the Holy Spirit or the human spirit. It is hard because it is the mingled spirit, the Holy Spirit mingled with the human spirit. We need to walk according to the spirit, that is, the mingled spirit. By this one mingled spirit, we enjoy two spirits. We enjoy the Holy Spirit in our spirit, and we enjoy our spirit with the Holy Spirit. Today we need to take care of one thing — walking according to the spirit.
We have many questions concerning how we should be and what we should do as Christians. Someone may ask, “Should I go to the movies?” Others may wonder what kind of clothes they should wear. Other Christian brothers may consider how long their hair should be. First Corinthians 11 says that it is a shame for a man to have long hair (v. 14). But how long is long? No one can make a decision concerning this. Please do not come to me asking these questions. We have One within us whose name is Counselor (Isa. 9:6). Go to Him and check with Him. Then you will have the answer.
Once, a sister asked me how she should deal with her husband. I told her that she did not need to come to me, because she had already received the answer. She asked me what I meant. I told her, “The Lord Jesus was with you last night, and He said something to you. He already told you that you shouldn’t talk to your dear husband in that way.” No one told me her story, but I saw the “heavenly television” concerning this sister’s situation. After I told her this, she admitted that the Lord had spoken to her in this way. I told her to take care of what the Lord had told her. I said, “The Lord Jesus is within you, and you have His speaking. Now walk according to the spirit.” If we walk according to the spirit, there will be no problems.
We have to realize that our flesh has been crushed, and our spirit has been not only regenerated but also strengthened. Our spirit is indwelt by the life-giving Spirit. We have such a wonderful, strengthened, mingled spirit within us, and this spirit must be the strongest part of our whole being. Do not have a strong mind, will, or emotion. The sisters should not let their emotions be the strongest part of their being. We have Jesus! We do not need to weep with many tears. Sometimes the tears of the sisters are for the purpose of gaining sympathy from others. The Old Testament tells us that two sons of Aaron were condemned and killed by the holiness of God. Moses then told Aaron not to weep for his sons (Lev. 10:1-3, 6). This means that the priests should control their natural affection, not sympathizing with the victim condemned by God’s holiness. Furthermore, God’s shekinah glory was there. There should be no tears in the presence of this shekinah glory. We should not have strong emotions. We have a strong spirit. Paul said that we have a spirit of power (2 Tim. 1:7), a strong spirit, strengthened by the divine Spirit. I want to stress this point to the uttermost — we have the strongest spirit, a spirit of power!
Those who go along with their spirit may seem to be somewhat crazy, but the proper Christians are crazy people. I do not mean that we are mental cases. What I mean is that we are the crazy lovers of Christ! The lovers of Christ are those who walk according to the spirit. In the book of Revelation, the apostle John says, “I was in spirit on the Lord’s Day...And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands” (1:10, 12). John was in his mingled spirit, heard the voice in his spirit, and had a turn in his spirit to see the seven golden lampstands. If you are bothered with certain church matters, do not stay in your mind to figure out things according to your knowledge and to argue about them. Forget about your mentality and turn to your spirit. When you turn to your spirit, the veil will be gone, and you will see the churches as the golden lampstands.
Christ became flesh to crush the flesh, and He became the Spirit to impart life into us and to strengthen our spirit, not merely for our salvation but for the building up of God’s habitation. God desires to have a resting place. In Isaiah 66:1 God said that heaven is His throne, and the earth is the footstool for His feet, but He is looking for a resting place. His resting place, His habitation, is composed of human beings who have been regenerated, transformed, and built together. God is looking for this, and Christ is God’s anointed One to accomplish this.
He became flesh and crushed the flesh on the cross. Then He became the Spirit and now is strengthening our spirit for the purpose of building up His habitation. In Ephesians 2:22 Paul says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” We can say that our spirit is the dwelling place of God. But strictly speaking, Ephesians 2:22 shows that our spirit is the place where the habitation of God is. The habitation of God is the Body, the built-up church. This habitation is in our spirit. There is only one place where we can be one. That place is in our spirit. If we get out of our spirit and stay in our mind, we will argue with one another. We should turn to our spirit.
When you are about to exchange words with your husband or with your wife, you should turn to your spirit. Once you turn to your spirit, your excuses will be terminated. Sometimes we may have the thought to argue with the brothers, but the life-giving Spirit will send a “cable” to our mind, telling our mind to come back to the spirit. The indwelling Christ tells us to turn to our spirit. Our exercising to turn to our spirit causes us to grow in life.
Certain ones have come to us to argue against the truth concerning the ground of the church or concerning the Lord’s recovery. Sometimes I would say, “In your mind you are arguing with me, but in your spirit you say Amen to me.” Let us come into the spirit. When we come into the spirit, right away we are one. Christianity is divided because most Christians abide in their mind. The mind is really divisive, but in the spirit is oneness. Christians have argued over the method of baptism. There is baptism by immersion, by sprinkling, in fresh water, in salt water, in the river, in the baptistery, and in the bathtub. There is baptism in the name of Jesus and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Some have even said that we need to follow Jesus to be baptized in the Jordan River, where He was baptized. We need to forget about all these kinds of doctrinal differences and come back to the spirit. Doctrines can be a snare, a trap. We have to jump out of this trap. We are those who have been saved by the blood and regenerated in our spirit. Let us come back to our spirit where we are one.
In Deuteronomy 12—16 the Lord charged the people of Israel again and again that when they entered into the good land, they had to worship God in the place that He would choose. They had no right to worship God with the enjoyment of all the offerings in the place of their choice. They had to go to the unique place chosen by God, where He would put His name and have His habitation. This place would be the center of their corporate worship to God. They could pray to God and fellowship with the Lord in their homes, but they had no right to have corporate worship in any place that they liked. They had to go to the unique place chosen by the Lord, which became Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem was God’s temple, God’s habitation, bearing God’s glorious name. All the Israelites went there three times a year (16:16), and that unique center kept the oneness of all the twelve tribes. If they had the liberty to set up their own worship centers, they would have been divided. The tribe of Dan in the north would have said, “It is too far for us to go to the south to worship God in Jerusalem. Our God is omnipresent. If He is there in Jerusalem with you, surely He is here with us in Dan.” Immediately, there would have been a division. But in God’s wisdom He charged them beforehand that they had no right to do this. They all had to go to the one place.
Even today, after so many centuries, no Jew on this earth dares to build a temple. They have the boldness to build hundreds of synagogues, but no one dares to build the temple, because they all know the charge in Deuteronomy. There is only one unique ground, one unique site, for them to build God’s habitation. That is on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. That unique ground kept the oneness of God’s people.
What was there in the Old Testament is a type of the reality in the New Testament. John 4 tells the story of the Lord Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman. Eventually, she said, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship” (v. 20). Then the Lord told her that the hour had come for the true worship of God (v. 23). That means that the dispensation had changed. Men now would no longer worship God with the types but in reality. The Lord said, “An hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him” (v. 23). Jerusalem was the unique center of God’s people’s worship to God, but this was a type of the human spirit. We can be one only if we worship God in our spirit, which is today’s Jerusalem. Today we have to worship God in spirit and in reality (v. 24). We do not need to go to Jerusalem to worship God with the offerings. Christ is now here as the reality of all the sacrifices, the offerings, and we can worship God in our spirit with Him as our reality.
If we do not worship God corporately in our spirit, we will be divided by our opinions and concepts. One Brethren assembly became divided over whether to use a piano or an organ in their meeting. Some may want to use guitars in the meeting, but others may not agree with this. Who is wrong and who is right? If we argue in this way, our arguments will be endless. We must be delivered from all these arguments. The place where we should be is not in our mentality. The place where we should be is in the spirit.
Some may not like the church meetings because they think they are too loud. But we need to turn to our spirit and see what the Lord would say. The Lord said in His Word that we need to make a joyful noise and even shout (Psa. 100:1; Isa. 12:6). A voice is orderly, but a noise is not. Let us make a joyful noise and shout to the Lord! Hebrews 5:7 says concerning Christ, “This One, in the days of His flesh, having offered up both petitions and supplications with strong crying.” When we are under extreme pressure or in a very difficult environment, as the Lord was, we will pray with strong crying. If we do not make a joyful noise, shout, and cry out, we cannot be released to the uttermost. This kind of exercise will fill us with joy and rejoicing.
The main point is that we touch the Lord in our spirit. It is not a matter of how we worship but a matter of whether or not we are released and touching the Lord in the spirit. We all have to come back to the spirit. When we come back to the spirit, we have the presence of the Lord, and we are one. In the spirit we are one, and in the spirit we offer Christ to God. It is in the spirit that we enjoy Christ with one another before God. We have the corporate worship in today’s Jerusalem, our spirit, not with the offerings but with Christ. In this way God’s habitation is built up.
Today a number of Christians would say that they care for meeting in the Lord’s name. But we also need to take care of the Lord’s habitation. We must meet in a place where the name of the Lord is and where the habitation of God is. The habitation is the building. Where the name of the Lord is and where the building of the saints is, that is the right place for all of us to come together to worship the Lord. That place is our spirit. If we are in our spirit, we are one and we are being built up. The mind is the divisive field. We are not one with one another in the mind. We all have to stay in our spirit. Here is oneness. Here is unity. Here is peace. Here is the building of the Body. Here is the habitation of God. And here is the worship to God.
Christ became flesh to get rid of the flesh, and He became the Spirit to strengthen our spirit. This mingled spirit is the place where we should be built together and where we should worship God, not with what we have by ourselves but with what Christ is to us. In our spirit we enjoy Him. This is the proper way to have the church life. Let us practice all the time to turn back to the spirit. Then we will have the proper church life. The human, regenerated, transformed, and indwelt spirit is our place for the building up of the Body, for the practicing of the church life, for the real worship to God, and for our fellowship with one another. As we remain in our spirit and turn to our spirit, spontaneously we will have a proper Christian life in our daily walk and a proper church life corporately. This is God’s way.
