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In the New Testament there are three verses that speak of both the human spirit and the divine Spirit. John 3:6 says that our spirit is born of the divine Spirit; John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit; and Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. Many who have been Christians for years have never seen the two spirits in these verses. Not long ago two brothers among us visited some preachers in a certain city. One brother began to speak about the two spirits. Because those preachers were proud and thought that they knew everything about the Spirit, they asked the brothers to talk about something else. At this point the other brother said, “You have told us that you know everything about the Spirit. Please tell me: what are the three verses in the Bible that speak of the two spirits?” Unable to locate the verses, the preachers could only look at one another.
John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The first spirit in this verse is God’s Spirit, and the second is our spirit. This means that our spirit is born of God the Spirit. This verse is found in the most familiar chapter in the Bible, John 3. Nearly every believer is able to recite John 3:16, but not many are able to recite verse 6. We need to be deeply impressed with this verse. It tells us that our spirit is born of the Spirit. How mysterious is this birth in our spirit!
The birth of the spirit in John 3:6 is not the first birth, the natural birth; it is the second birth, the spiritual birth. All the saved ones have been born twice. If you have had only one birth, you are still a fallen one, destined to perish. The first birth, from our parents, is the birth in the flesh; the second birth, from God, is the birth in our spirit.
According to John 3:6, the second birth transpires in our spirit. In our spirit we were born of God the Spirit. Many Christians are not clear about the human spirit. Some great Christian teachers have said that our spirit is simply our mind. What a terrible mistake! If this is true, then the wonderful birth spoken of in John 3:6 takes place in our mind. How absurd to say this! If even some of the great teachers in Christianity are not clear about the birth in the spirit, then what about the vast majority of Christians? As far as the spirit and life in the Spirit are concerned, the situation in Christianity is pitiful. Not many actually realize that the spiritual birth takes place in our spirit and is of God the Spirit.
Anyone who has not experienced the second birth can be born of the Spirit by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. If you call, “O Lord Jesus!” the Spirit of God will come into your spirit, and you will immediately experience the second birth. Hallelujah for the second birth! We are the second-birth people. Never forget the two spirits in John 3:6 — the human spirit and the divine Spirit.
Another precious verse about these two spirits is John 4:24. This verse says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” Here again we see that God is Spirit and that we have a spirit. If we would worship God, we must worship Him in our spirit. As human beings, we have many organs: eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, a mouth for speaking and eating, a nose for smelling and breathing, hands for working, and feet for walking. We also have our various inward organs, including a stomach for retaining and digesting food. In addition to all these organs, we have a spirit with which to worship God.
Man was made by God and for God. He was made to worship God, to contact God, to receive God, to retain God, and even to digest God. Your religious mentality may be offended at the thought of digesting God. Yes, we must digest God. The Lord Jesus said that He was the bread of life and that we must eat Him (6:35, 54-57). Jesus is edible! If we eat Him, we must also digest Him. The function of the organ of our spirit is to worship, contact, receive, retain, and digest God. We may call this organ our spiritual stomach. Just as we all have two hearts, a physical heart and a psychological heart, we also have two stomachs. With our physical stomach we digest food, and with our spiritual stomach we digest God. Have you ever realized that in addition to your physical stomach you also have a spiritual stomach? Often, after being satisfied with food that fills our physical stomach, we are still hungry in our spirit, our spiritual stomach. This is the organ for digesting God. We need to receive God into this part of our being.
We all have a spirit, and we must use our spirit to contact God. Consider the example of breathing. In order to breathe in air, we need to use our nose. We cannot use our hand to grasp the air, our eyes to look at it, or our ears to hear it. There is only one organ designed for receiving air, and that organ is the nose. Whenever we exercise this organ, we receive air into us. Likewise, our spirit is the proper organ to use in receiving God. Never say that there is no God. Do not say, “I don’t believe in God, because I can’t see Him or grasp Him.” You cannot grasp Him unless you use the right organ. Just as we exercise our nose to take in fresh air, we must exercise our spirit to receive God. Do not exercise your mind to ask where God is and then complain that you cannot see Him. God is present, even omnipresent. He is with you right now. But if you try to contact Him with your mind, you are using the wrong organ. Forget about exercising your mind to contact God, and exercise your spirit from deep within, calling, “O Lord! O Lord Jesus!” If you do this, God will immediately come into you. God is Spirit, and we worship Him in our spirit. Thus, the human spirit worships the divine Spirit.
The third verse concerning the two spirits is Romans 8:16. This verse says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” Here we see that the divine Spirit witnesses with our human spirit. Many times these two spirits talk to each other. Our spirit may say, “God is my Father,” and the divine Spirit will say Amen. The divine Spirit may say, “You are a child of God,” and our spirit will say Hallelujah!
We all need to become thoroughly familiar with these three verses on the two spirits. Remember, in John 3:6 our spirit is born of the Spirit, in John 4:24 our spirit worships the Spirit, and in Romans 8:16 the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. These three verses are virtually all-inclusive. In John 3:6 we are reborn, in John 4:24 we digest God and enjoy Him, and in Romans 8:16 we walk with God, live by God, and are one with God in our being. This is the Christian life, the Christian living. We live by the divine Spirit in our spirit by enjoying the divine Spirit through our spirit and by walking in our spirit in our daily living.
First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam is Christ in the flesh, the Lamb of God who took away our sins. Christ is the Word, God Himself (John 1:1). This Word became flesh, becoming the Lamb of God to take away our sins (vv. 14, 29). After taking away our sins through His death, this last Adam became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection.
The Lord Jesus has taken two great steps. In the first step He became flesh, and in the second step He became the life-giving Spirit. Originally, He was merely God. Then He took the first step, incarnation, to become the flesh for our redemption. After completing the work of redemption, in resurrection He took the second step to become the life-giving Spirit. Thus, the first step was for redemption, and the second was for the giving of life.
Most Christians know only the first step. They are totally unaware of the second. How pitiful! Some today even oppose any mention of the second step. When we tell them that the Lord Jesus today is the life-giving Spirit, they say, “This is heretical. The Lord Jesus is only the Son. As the Son, He cannot be the Spirit. Why do you say that He is the life-giving Spirit?” But the Bible clearly reveals that our Lord Jesus has taken two steps: the first step to become the flesh to take away our sins and the second step to become the life-giving Spirit to impart life into us. We once were poor, fallen people. We did not have life, but we had a great many sins. In order to save us, the Lord Jesus had to pass through these two steps. In the first step He shed His blood for us to take away our sins. Then in the second step He became the life-giving Spirit to impart Himself into us as life. Hallelujah, our sins are gone and life is here! The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Our Redeemer today is the life-giving Spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” No doubt, the Lord here is Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Spirit who gives life. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberation. How wonderful!
First Corinthians 6:17 is a marvelous verse: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Here we see that these two spirits have joined to become one spirit. How profound! Have you ever realized that you can be one spirit with the Lord? If we saw this fact, we would be beside ourselves. We would say, “Hallelujah, I am one spirit with the Lord! I don’t care about my temper or about Satan. I don’t care about the demons, the scorpions, the snakes, or all the little ‘bugs.’ I am one spirit with the Lord.” We may need to tell those we meet, “Don’t touch me! I’m too great! I’m one spirit with the Lord!” If you see the fact that you are one spirit with the Lord, the demons will be terrified. There is no need to have a long face and a wrinkled brow. You need to see that you are one spirit with the Lord. If you saw this, you could never have a long face again. Rather, your face would be shining. Do you truly believe this verse? If you did, could you still be cold and silent? No, you would be beside yourself, shouting praises to the Lord and even jumping out of your seat. What could be higher or greater than being one spirit with the Lord? How wonderful it is to be one spirit with Him!
The first three verses we have covered — John 3:6, John 4:24, and Romans 8:16 — make up one group; and the next three verses — 1 Corinthians 15:45, 2 Corinthians 3:17, and 1 Corinthians 6:17 — make up a second group. Now we need to consider a third group of verses regarding the Spirit — Galatians 5:16 and Romans 8:4-6. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.” If you walk by the Spirit, everything will be wonderful. There will be no need for you to bear the cross, to crucify yourself, or to try to commit spiritual suicide. Many seeking Christians are trying to terminate themselves. They say, “I am so bad. If I could crucify myself, everything would be all right.” But God does not expect you to crucify yourself. Although no one could possibly crucify himself, many Christians are still trying their best to do so. No one can commit suicide by crucifixion. In some respects, the efforts of many Christians in trying to crucify themselves resemble Hinduism. Many say, “Oh, we must bear the cross! My wife, my children, and all my relatives are crosses.” This is today’s pitiful Christianity. Although it is full of “crosses,” there is no Spirit. I cannot find a verse in the Epistles telling us to bear the cross. In the Epistles it is not a matter of bearing the cross; it is a matter of walking by the Spirit. The cross is on the hill of Calvary, but the Spirit is within us. We simply need to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). Hallelujah for the spirit!
Many Christians are still under the influence of Madame Guyon, who asked God to give her more crosses. It seemed that one cross was not sufficient; she sought many of them. But the Bible tells us to be filled in our spirit, not with crosses but with the Lord (Eph. 5:18). It tells us to be filled in our spirit with His Spirit. Forget about bearing the cross in a religious way. However, do not misunderstand me. Do not say, “I personally heard Witness Lee tell us to throw away the cross and forget about it. What heresy!” In order for us to be redeemed and justified, we need the cross. The Lord Jesus died on the cross to redeem us. Now we are justified through the blood of the cross. Hence, we definitely need the cross. But after we are saved, we need to walk daily in the presence of God. For this we need the Spirit. Nevertheless, some may still argue and say, “Now that we are walking in the presence of God, don’t we need to cross out ourselves?” Yes, we do need to be crossed out. But the killing element, the power to be crossed out, is not in our mind or in our mental figuration. It is in the Spirit.
In the past I read some books about reckoning ourselves dead. After reading these books, I did a great deal of reckoning. But the more I reckoned myself dead, the more alive I became. Reckoning simply did not work. I believe many of you have had the same experience. It seems that we were dead if we did not reckon. But as soon as we began to reckon, we became alive, for our reckoning stirred us up.
When I was young, I sometimes lost my temper. Whenever I lost my temper, I regretted it. This was especially true after I was saved. Each time I lost my temper, I would feel bad, go to my room, repent, confess, apply the blood, and make up my mind never to lose my temper again. I prayed, “O Lord Jesus, help me not to lose my temper again.” Nevertheless, a short while later, I would lose my temper once more. Later, I read some books about how to overcome sin. The first thing these books told me was that I had to see that my old man had been crucified. When I read this, I thought it was wonderful. But I said to myself, “The Bible says that my troublesome old man has been crucified. But in my experience he is very much alive.” Then I read further in the book that I had to reckon myself dead. These books said that I should not believe my feelings but that I should trust in my reckoning. No matter how much I felt I was alive, I was to forget my feelings and reckon myself dead. I thought this was wonderful, and I endeavored to practice it. However, this was mere mathematics. I discovered that the more I reckoned my old man to be dead, the more troublesome he became. Reckoning did not work.
Some may say, “In Brother Nee’s book The Normal Christian Life, there is a chapter telling us to reckon ourselves dead. What would you say about this?” The messages printed in this book were given in Brother Nee’s early ministry. Many Christians just pick up what Brother Nee said in his early ministry. But in the later years Brother Nee learned much more and discovered many things. In one of his later messages he said that we can never experience Romans 6 until we come into Romans 8. He further said that our crucifixion with Christ can only be experienced in the spirit. He told us clearly that mere reckoning will not work; we must walk in spirit. The killing element, the killing power, is in the Spirit. I say again that it is not sufficient merely to reckon. The experiences of thousands of Christians prove that mere reckoning does not work.
A. B. Simpson wrote a hymn about reckoning. The following is the first verse and chorus:
Please do not try to argue with me about the matter of reckoning. Anyone who tries to reckon himself dead will discover that it does not work. Perhaps A. B. Simpson’s hymn about reckoning should be revised to read, “Spirit, spirit, spirit, in our union with Christ.” It is not a matter of trying to bear the cross or to reckon ourselves dead; it is a matter of walking in the spirit. Before experiencing resurrection we must bear the cross and be crossed out, but after experiencing resurrection, we must walk in the spirit. Hallelujah, the Spirit is in our spirit!
Now, according to Romans 8:6, we need to set our mind on the spirit, not on the flesh. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. Your mind represents you. To set the mind on the spirit means to agree with the spirit. Never agree with the flesh or go along with it. Rather, agree with the spirit and go along with the spirit. If you do, you will have life and peace.
Today the Spirit of Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit. The effectiveness of the cross, the killing power, is included in the Spirit. As medical doctors know, in many medications there is both the killing element and the nourishing element. The killing element destroys the germs in our blood, and the nourishing element supplies our being with nutrients. The all-inclusive Spirit of Christ is the best dose. In this dose there is the killing element, Christ’s crucifixion. The effectiveness of the death of Christ is now in the all-inclusive Spirit. Do not try to reckon yourself dead. Instead, let the Spirit move within you. If you take this dose, the killing power included in it will kill all the germs in your being.
Our need today is to walk in spirit. If we walk in spirit, we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. In Romans 8:4 Paul says that when we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. This means that if we walk according to the spirit, everything will be all right.
In this chapter we have covered ten crucial verses regarding the Spirit: John 3:6; 4:24 Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 6:17; Galatians 5:16; and Romans 8:4-6. I would encourage you all to become so familiar with these verses that you are able to recite them. If you pray-read these verses, eating them and digesting them, you will have a victorious Christian life. You will find how glorious it is to walk in the spirit.
