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I. Exercise unto godliness
А. The exercise of the spirit
B. More profitable than bodily exercise
II. Taking care of our conscience
А. A good conscience
B. The need of the cleansing blood
III. Exercising by praying
А. Praying without ceasing by calling
B. Pray-reading the Word
IV. Exercising our spirit in the meetings
[First Timothy 4:7 says to "exercise yourself unto godliness." 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, "God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of a sober mind." Then 2 Timothy 4:22 says, "The Lord be with your spirit." When we put all these verses together, we can see that the exercise unto godliness depends on the exercise of the spirit, where the Lord is. If you are going to exercise your self unto godliness, you have to know how to exercise your spirit because the very God is in your spirit. These verses are the scriptural ground for the exercise of the spirit.]
[In the Greek text of the New Testament, the word for "exercise" is the same as the English word "gymnastics." In the days when the Apostle Paul wrote these epistles, gymnastic exercises were practiced by the Greeks. Therefore, the historical background of the word used by Paul was the exercise of bodily gymnastics. Even today, people are learning more and more how to exercise their body for their physical health. However, the Apostle Paul utilized this word to stress the vital need of another kind of gymnastics, another kind of exercise that is not related to the physical body. This kind of gymnastics pertains solely to the matter of godliness.
Perhaps some brothers have daily exercises or gymnastics for their body. Well, this is good, for Paul said that bodily exercise has some profit. It is good, but only to a certain degree. However, Paul describes another kind of gymnastics which is good forever — both for today and for eternity! He says that this second kind of gymnastics gives us profit for the life today and for the life in eternity. Therefore, we should pay more attention to this other gymnastics, the exercise of our spirit.]
In order to be able to exercise our spirit it is vital to take care of our conscience. [The conscience is the leading part of our spirit. If our conscience is wrong, we can never have a proper spirit. Moreover, we can never even exercise our spirit. In fact, if our conscience is wrong, our spirit is dead! Therefore, before we can properly exercise our spirit, we must first have a good conscience.]
[If you become contaminated by looking at certain kinds of pictures, your spirit will be defiled, contaminated, and deadened. As a result, you will not be able to pray unless you first ask the Lord to cleanse you from all defilement. I offer this as an illustration of our need to cooperate with the sanctifying Triune God to have our spirit preserved from deadness and contamination.]
[Therefore, whenever we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, we need the blood. If we do not know how to apply the blood, we really do not know how to exercise the spirit. Every time we exercise our spirit, we will sense that we need the blood. The cleansing blood is a must; it is absolutely vital and necessary. As soon as we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, who is righteous and holy, we will sense the need of the blood to cleanse our conscience. He is in the glory, but we are sinful, evil, dirty, worldly and carnal, falling short of His glory! Therefore, the blood must fill the gap between us and the Lord. We must learn to apply the blood constantly.]
[We have to start to exercise our spirit by praying, because to pray, in principle, is something in the spirit (Eph. 6:18). If you are going to exercise your eyes, you have to see. If you are going to exercise your feet, you have to walk. The more you walk, the more you exercise your feet. In like manner, the best way for you to exercise your spirit is to learn to pray.] However, in your experience it may not seem so easy to pray.
[One reason why we cannot pray is that our spirit has not been used for a long, long time. It is out of function, because it has not been exercised. Once a doctor told me that if we covered our eyes for three months, we would not be able to see. Even though we open our eyes, our sight will be lost, because we have not used our eyes for quite a long time. If we do not use them, our eyes will fail to function. Likewise, many brothers and sisters simply fail to use their spirit. They are constantly using their mind, emotion, will, or their physical body, but not their spirit. Therefore, the spirit fails to function and is consequently lost.]
[The unique way to exercise our spirit is to pray. As we exercise our spirit in prayer, our aim should be to contact the Lord, not first to pray for certain people or things. Simply contact the Lord and allow Him to burden you to pray for certain ones. Do not go to the Lord with your mind filled with things to pray for. If you try to contact the Lord in this way, you will close your spirit. We should come to the Lord with a spirit fully open, worshipping Him, praising Him, and thanking Him. Then we shall know what to pray for, and we shall have much to utter to the Lord in prayer.]
[In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul charges us to pray without ceasing. What does it mean to pray unceasingly? Although we may eat several meals a day and although we may drink many times during the day, no one can eat and drink without ceasing. But we certainly breathe unceasingly. Paul's command to pray without ceasing implies that unceasing prayer is like breathing. But how can our prayer become our spiritual breathing? How can we turn prayer into breathing? The way to do this is to call on the name of the Lord. We need to call on the Lord Jesus continually. This is the way to breathe, to pray without ceasing. Because we are not accustomed to this, we need to practice calling on the Lord's name all the time. To live is to breathe. Spiritually speaking, to breathe is to call on the Lord's name and to pray. By calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we breathe the Spirit.]
As we have seen in Lesson Twelve, the Spirit is embodied in the Word. In order to experience the supply of the Spirit in the Word we must exercise our spirit. Pray-reading is one of the best ways to exercise our spirit.
[Let us use Psalm 133 to show the difference between analyzing the Bible and enjoying the nourishment contained in it by pray-reading. In their time of personal devotions, some Christians may read Psalm 133. As they read, they may begin to analyze and to ask about the precious ointment, the beard, the skirts, the dew, and Mount Hermon. Instead of receiving the bountiful supply, they are left with many unanswered questions. But if we pray-read Psalm 133, we shall take this portion in the way of life. As we pray-read, we may say, "Behold, amen! How good and how pleasant, amen." By taking the Word in this way, we shall apply the all-inclusive Spirit to our inner being. By pray-reading we exercise our spirit to receive spiritual nourishment from the Word. Through this nourishment we grow in life. We are nourished with the words of faith and healthy teaching. If we take even as little as ten minutes to pray-read a portion of the Word, we shall receive nourishment. Furthermore, we shall experience the various elements of Christ's riches.]
Finally, we must see that it is crucial to exercise our spirit in the church meetings. [Whenever we Christians come together in a church meeting, we need to function. We need to pray, praise, or give a word of testimony. This is to exercise our spirit and not allow it to remain dormant or in a deadened condition. But sorry to say, many saints do not preserve their spirit by exercising it in this way. Instead, they allow their spirit to remain dormant. It seems that they leave their spirit in a tomb.]
[When everyone exercises his spirit in a meeting, the Holy Spirit is free to move and flow. But this is a real battle, for Satan knows that if we all release our spirits, he will be defeated. He subtly hits the strategic point of choking the spirit of the saints. As long as he can choke our spirit, we are finished and he is successful. Therefore, we must fight the battle. We must learn to practice releasing our spirit all the time and be continually ready to pray. Whenever we come to a meeting, we must immediately exercise and release our spirit to pray.]
[All our problems are solved and all our needs are met through the exercise of our spirit. All that God is and all that He has accomplished are in the all-inclusive Spirit who has been installed in our spirit. Therefore, by turning to our spirit and by exercising our spirit, we may obtain the full supply to meet our need.]
We believers must know how to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord. In order to exercise our spirit we must take care of our conscience by applying the cleansing blood. The unique way to exercise our spirit is to pray. We can all pray without ceasing by calling on the name of the Lord continually. We exercise our spirit to receive spiritual nourishment from the Word by pray-reading. We must exercise our spirit in the church meetings by praying, praising, or giving a word of testimony.
