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I. The Body of Christ and our regenerated spirit in Ephesians
II. A spirit of revelation to see the Body
III. Built together in spirit
IV. Strengthened in the inner man
V. Renewed in the spirit of the mind
VI. Filled in spirit
VII. Praying in spirit
[The reason there is virtually no church life in Christianity today is that most Christians do not know the human spirit. Rather, most of today's Christian teachings are concerned with the mind. The book of Ephesians, however, is not focused on the mind, but on the spirit. Our spirit must be a spirit of wisdom and revelation, the place of God's building, the organ in which God reveals His mystery to us, and the inner man strengthened by the Spirit of God. Furthermore, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and to pray in spirit. Through proper exercise, our spirit will eventually be filled unto all the fullness of God. This is the mingling of God and man that produces the church life.]
[First of all, we need to see that the Body is a matter absolutely in the spirit, in our human spirit. Our regenerated spirit is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but the emphasis with the Body of Christ today is on our human spirit rather than on the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in every chapter of the book of Ephesians there is something mentioned about our regenerated human spirit. Ephesians is a book on the Body, and every chapter contains a verse concerning the human spirit. We need to pray-read these verses again and again.]
[Paul prayed that the Father of glory "may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation" (Eph. 1:17). The spirit here is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. It is necessary for you to see the Body, but you could never see the Body unless you are in the spirit. If you do not have the vision in your spirit, if you do not have a spirit of revelation, a seeing spirit, you could not see the Body. If your eyes do not have sight, you could not distinguish one color from another, and you could not view the scenery. The Body of Christ is something different from all the scenes we could see, something different from all the colors we could see naturally. It is a heavenly vision. Therefore, we need a spirit of revelation, a spirit of seeing, a seeing spirit, to see the Body. I do not mean that we need a clever mind to understand. What we need is a spirit transparent to see, a spirit of revelation, a seeing spirit to see the Body. The spirit of revelation to see the Body is the first point concerning our spirit in this book on the church.]
[To use our mind to try to understand the matter of the church instead of turning to our spirit to see the revelation of the church can be compared to trying to see a particular color with our eyes closed instead of opening our eyes to see that color. With your eyes closed, without the faculty of vision, you cannot see any of the colors. The faculty of understanding does not work for the colors. But if you open your eyes, all the doubts are gone, all the questions are gone, and you do know what the particular color is. You may not be able to explain what you see, but your eyes can substantiate the colors and can distinguish one color from another. To see the colors, we need to open our eyes. To see the church, we need to turn to our spirit.
We need to turn to our spirit and respect the fact that our spirit is a spirit of revelation. To see the church is simple when you use the proper organ. In the spirit the matter of the church is very clear. The local church is different from all the denominations. You may not be able to explain the difference, but when you turn to the spirit and see the church, you will know the difference, and you will know that you have seen the church.]
[The matter of seeing the church is in the spirit, and the building up of the church is also in the spirit. In Ephesians 2:22 Paul says that "you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit." As long as we stay outside of the spirit, we are divided, and we are also divisive. As long as we are not in the spirit, we are individualistic. It is not at all hard to be divisive or to be individualistic. Simply by staying away from our spirit, simply by lingering in our mind to consider or by lingering in our emotion, we are divisive, we are individualistic, and we are not willing to be tempered. We have our likes and dislikes, our tastes and preferences, our opinions about the brothers and sisters, and we would rather stay at home than be in the meetings with the saints. As long as we stay away from our spirit, we see no need to be tempered together, and we feel it is necessary for each of us to maintain a distinctiveness from others, to take care of our individual personality created by God, and to hold on to our own prestige. It is impossible for us to be tempered together as long as we stay outside the spirit with such concepts. However, if we would turn ourselves to the spirit, right away we would see that we need to be tempered, we would be willing to be tempered, and we would even cry out to the Lord for His mercy that He would temper us together.]
[Furthermore, we need to be strengthened in the inner man, in our regenerated human spirit. In chapter three of Ephesians Paul prayed, "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man" (v. 16). Not only is the seeing of the Body in the spirit, not only is the building up together of the Body in the spirit, but the strengthening in the inner man is also in the spirit. In order to be strengthened in the inner man we need to be in the spirit. We are too strong in the emotion, in the will, and in the mind, but we are not strong enough in the inner man, in the spirit. We need to be strengthened in the inner man. The strengthening of God is in our spirit.]
[Then in chapter four of Ephesians, after the strengthening in the inner man, there is the renewing of the spirit of the mind (v. 23). Every part of your mind needs to be completely renewed, renewed in the spirit that takes over, occupies, and possesses your mind and becomes the spirit of your mind. You may not realize how much your mind controls your spirit and even controls the Holy Spirit. Without the cooperation of your mind, the Holy Spirit could not get through in you. In this sense, the Holy Spirit is under the control of your mind. However, this is not the proper order. Both the Holy Spirit and our human spirit should be over our mind and should take full control of our mind. The mind should be set upon the spirit (Rom. 8:6), and the mind should be governed, possessed, occupied, taken over, controlled, and subdued by the spirit. Then this spirit is the renewing spirit.
All of us need to be renewed again and again, daily, hourly, moment by moment, all the time, in, with, and by such a renewing spirit. If such is the case, the local church life will be real and precious to you, and you will realize that there is no other way for you to go on, no other way for you to take.]
[In the first four chapters of Ephesians there is the seeing in the spirit (1:17), building up in the spirit (2:22), being strengthened in the spirit (3:16), and being renewed in the spirit (4:23). In chapter five Paul indicates that we need to be filled in spirit. According to 3:19, to be filled in spirit means to be filled unto all the fullness of the Godhead. When Christ makes His home in our heart, and when we are strong to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ and to know by experience His knowledge-surpassing love, we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God. All this fullness dwells in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Through His indwelling, Christ imparts what God is into our being. We can be filled with God to such a measure and standard, even unto all the fullness of God.]
[It seems that we often are full in our mind, but empty in the spirit. Our spirit seems somewhat like a flat tire, but our mind and emotion are both filled up. We need to pray that we would be emptied in the mind and emptied in the emotion, but filled unto the fullness of God in our spirit. Then the church life will be very valuable to us. We will treasure the church life.]
[Finally, in chapter six of Ephesians, Paul says that we need to pray at every time in spirit (v. 18). This prayer is the prayer of a member of the Body identified with Christ on the throne, all the time claiming, proclaiming, giving command to the Lord, and binding the enemy. This is not the prayer of a beggar, not begging prayer, not the prayer of the poor sinner, not the prayer of the poor, weak saints pleading with the Lord, but the prayer of the Body, the prayer of members of the Body identified with the Head.]
[We need to see the Body in the spirit, to be built up in the spirit, to be strengthened in the spirit, to be renewed in the spirit, to be filled unto the fullness of God in the spirit, and to pray in spirit as members of the Body, identified with the Head. If such is the case, spontaneously we will have the church life. If not, it will be hard to have the church life. We may have a lot of talk about the Body life and a lot of teachings about the church, but we will have no way at all to realize what the church life actually is. I urge you again and again to turn to the spirit because the church life is in your spirit.]
The Body of Christ is a matter absolutely in spirit, in our human spirit. In order to see the Body, we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation. The building up of the church is also in spirit. Furthermore, in order to be strengthened into the inner man, we need to be in spirit. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we need to pray in spirit. Through the exercise of our spirit we will be filled unto all the fullness of God to produce the church life.
