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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:4, 6, 14; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thes. 5:17, 19; Rev. 1:10a
God intends to work Himself into us to be both our life and our nature. He wants us to live Him out. In order to accomplish this intention, God created a spirit within man. Then He Himself became flesh and went through death and resurrection, at which point He became the life-giving Spirit. Before the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, this life-giving Spirit, who is known in the New Testament as the Spirit, “was not yet” (John 7:39).
When we repent and believe in the Lord, our conscience, which is within our spirit, has effectively functioned. We confess our sins and are cleansed by the Lord’s precious blood. Our spirit is regenerated, and the Spirit comes to dwell in our spirit so that the two become one. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). How glorious it is that we sinners, after being cleansed by the precious blood, can be one spirit with God!
Now He wants us to live in this spirit. The Scripture tells us that there are “those who are according to the flesh” and “those who are according to the spirit” (Rom. 8:5). To walk according to the flesh means to carry out whatever the flesh desires. A fleshly person eats whatever he wants and drinks whatever appeals to him. Even if what he does is illegal or harmful or sinful, he is not concerned. He shamelessly indulges his flesh and answers to no one.
Besides this kind of person who walks in the lusts of the flesh, there is the natural man, who lives according to the soul (1 Cor. 2:14). A sister, for example, may live by her emotions. When she expresses her opinion, it is not well reasoned; it is simply how she feels. Sometimes she is excited and happy; other times she is depressed and tearful. To live by the emotions is not evil like living according to the flesh. But even though she may not be engaging in sinful things, there will be times when she loses her temper. Then she is close to being in the lust of the flesh. Her face turns livid, her self-control vanishes, and the angry words spill out unchecked. Afterward, she will feel ashamed and remorseful.
A brother, on the other hand, usually lives by his mind. He is less inclined to be bad-tempered. When he participates in a conversation, his words are carefully chosen. His position on different matters is well thought out so that he gives the impression of being intelligent, reasonable, and even wise.
We all naturally admire this type of person. He is living by the mind, but he impresses us more than the one who lives by her emotions. Both, however, are living according to the soul, and in our thinking we rank them higher than those who live according to the flesh, indulging themselves without restraint.
What God wants, of course, is that man live according to the spirit. Those who do are the highest class of humanity.
Because the Lord today is the Spirit living in our spirit, for us to live according to the spirit is to live according to Him. When we live by the spirit, the Lord is living out from us, because we are one with Him in spirit. When we live according to the flesh, we cannot touch Him. When we live by the soul, the Lord cannot live out from us; we are simply living by ourselves. Whenever we live by the spirit, however, we experience Him.
If you ask me where the Lord is, I will tell you that He is within your spirit. Do not think of Him as being far away in heaven. Do not look around for Him. He is within you. The Lord Jesus is with your spirit. How precious and glorious this is!
All of you who are saved, and especially who are in the Lord’s recovery, must live according to the spirit. You must not live according to anything else. You may wonder about living according to the Bible. Usually, your efforts to follow the Bible come from the mind. If you want to know what your relationship to your wife should be, you read the Bible passages that deal with that subject. You find out that you must love your wife. Ephesians 5:25 says so. Then you purpose in yourself to love her. You have understood the Bible according to your mind, and you now attempt to fulfill it by your will. What kind of living is this? It is the living of the soul. It is not evil living, but nonetheless it is not according to the spirit. Your intention is good. Before you were saved, you had little love for your wife. She had too much to say, was always criticizing how you did things, and kept checking up on your whereabouts. Or, your wife may have been overbearing in her love for you. She may have closely supervised everything you wore, carefully watched that you took your vitamin pills, and seen to it that you did not stay up too late. During your honeymoon you could stand it, but afterward, it became unbearable. You came to hate her and her nagging ways.
Your dislike of her was a matter of the soul. Now that you are saved, you read your Bible regularly and try hard to obey what it says. Thus, you are trying to love your wife. This love is in your soul, just as your hatred was in your soul. Dear brother, you must live according to the spirit. If you love your wife, it must be because you are living according to the spirit. Your wife may keep on nagging you, but you continue to live according to the spirit.
By living in the spirit you will find that you are living in the heavens, because your spirit is linked to heaven. The spirit is the Holy of Holies. In this place nothing can disturb you. This realm is unchanging, whatever the outward circumstances are.
If you live in the soul, you will change with your circumstances. When the weather is sunny, you will be cheerful. When the sky is overcast, you will be sad.
How can we be those who live according to the spirit?
For one thing, we must not act or react in haste. Even if we are about to lose our temper, we must slow down. The first time our wife provokes us, we may be able to exercise patience. By the third time, however, all our patience is gone, and we are ready to explode. This is the point when we must tell Satan to hold off for a minute or two; we need that little extra time before we give vent to our anger. In other areas of our living also, we must not act hastily. This applies to our talking, to the look we give others, and to the opinion we express.
Why is it important for us to slow down? We are used to living in the soul. It is natural for us to be there. Our parents and our education have encouraged us to live according to the soul. Now that we are saved, the Lord wants us to be a people living according to the spirit. We have little hope of changing, however, unless we slow down these spontaneous reactions and ways of looking at things. If we are fast, the likelihood is that we are in the soul. If we are slow, we give ourselves the opportunity to turn to the spirit.
Use this little time you give yourself by slowing down, to pray. By praying, you enter into the spirit. There you will have a different view of the situation. If your wife aggravates you, your soul is filled with dislike for her. When you are viewing her from the spirit, however, you may praise the Lord for giving you such a desirable wife. In all these human relationships, the view from the soul is one thing, and the view from the spirit is another. When you are in the soul, you are in trouble and will offend the Lord. If you turn to your spirit, however, you will immediately be preserved and will enjoy the Lord’s presence.
When you go shopping, something may catch your eye, and you may feel free to buy it. But if you will restrain your impulse and turn to your spirit, you may find after praying a little that the article has lost its appeal and that your intention to buy it is gone. It looked one way to the soul but another way to the spirit.
A brother may come to talk to you about a certain matter. As you are listening, you may feel negative about what he is saying. Inwardly, however, you remind yourself to turn to the spirit. As you remain in your spirit praying, your view of what he is saying may completely change.
Many times when you are in your soul, you want to do something or go somewhere. Once you turn to your spirit, however, the urge is gone.
Do you want to live according to the soul or according to the spirit?
It is difficult to stay all the time in the spirit. Before we realize it, we have slipped out. Suppose a brother comes to fellowship with me. At first I am watchful to remain in my spirit. I listen in spirit, and what I say in reply comes from the spirit. We both are greatly enjoying the fellowship together. Then in a moment of joy I fall back into my soul; unconsciously I have slipped out of my spirit.
We easily slip into our soul because it is right next to the spirit. The soul is where our person is. God has saved us and moved us to our spirit. Although we recognize this, we still like to live in the soul. We are like a girl who is newly married. She loves her husband, but she still likes to go back to her old home. While she is at work, she secretly slips over to her mother’s for a visit.
The Lord wants a people who live according to the spirit. This is not to say that He wants us to do the right thing and refrain from doing what is wrong. If we live by the soul, no matter what good thing we do, it counts for nothing. God has set us in our spirit and is causing us more and more to live there. We can do this first of all by not being in a hurry.
“The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). The second help to staying in our spirit is to set the mind on the spirit. Our mind represents us. Where we put our mind is where we are. Just as I can put my Bible here on this table, so we can place our mind on the table of our spirit, where the Lord is. That spirit is always available for our mind to be put there.
It is an exercise for us to do this. First, we must slow down. Then, we must set our mind on the spirit. Immediately, the Lord will emerge. When our mind is set on the spirit, there is life and peace.
We Christians are not here simply to be moral people. We are here to live the Lord out. Today He is the Spirit and is within us. He wants us to live according to our indwelt spirit. In our living throughout the day, in things great and small, we must react slowly, and we must set our mind on the spirit.
Then we will touch the Lord, and immediately we must pray. There is no need to go into our room and shut the door. If we are driving, we do not need to pull over to the side of the road and stop. If we are working in the office, we do not have to drop what we are doing. As soon as we set our mind on the spirit, we can pray. As we drive or as we work, we can pray spontaneously, we can call upon the Lord, and we can breathe Him in.
If we slow down, set our mind on the spirit, and pray, we will experience the reality of being one spirit with the Lord. We will not be affected by outward circumstances. Whether we are praised or rebuked will make no difference. If our wife is angry, we will not be provoked. When we are well liked by others, we are unmoved. If they spurn us, it makes no difference. We are in spirit and therefore one with the Lord. Naturally and spontaneously we live Him out.
This is not difficult. All it requires is exercise. To be a person in spirit is within the reach of every brother and sister. The problem is that we are in the habit of living naturally and are unwilling to make the effort to slow down, to set our mind on the spirit, and to pray.
We must be like soldiers in battle. We must gird up our loins (1 Pet. 1:13). When we do things in a natural way, we have our belts loosened. We cannot be casual, waiting for fate to decide what happens. As soon as we wake up in the morning, we must gird up our loins by turning to the Lord. By thus readying ourselves for battle, we take the ground away from Satan.
Are you willing to live in your spirit? If not, there is no way. If you are, it is simple to slow down before you react, to set your mind on the spirit, and to pray. It is not so much a matter of understanding; it is rather like eating or breathing. Everyone can do it, even without knowing why or how.
We are still under the influence of religion. We prefer to live in our mind. It is difficult to make this change to our spirit. That is why we have to keep on reading and listening to message after message. It is all too easy to listen from a doctrinal point of view and then to argue about what we think is wrong. Let us cease our concern about doctrines. Simply say, “Lord, I praise You that I have a spirit within. I thank You that You are the Spirit and that You have come into my spirit. You are one spirit with me. All that You want of me is that I live according to the spirit. I would set my mind on the spirit and be watchful to stay there with You.”
If you want to consider the matter of the church, as long as you are in your mind, the problems are endless and cannot be resolved. What about the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, or the Methodists? Should there not be a pastor? Why do you not have all the chairs face the front? Why do some people keep their eyes open when they pray? Are you the only ones who are the church? Are there not saved ones in the denominations?
Years ago I would try to answer questions like these. I found out that as soon as one question was answered, two more would pop up. There simply is no end to the questions that arise when we are in the mind. Now I no longer answer such questions directly. I remind the inquirer that he needs to come to his spirit, not stay in his mind. In spirit he can call on the Lord’s name. Then he will be clear. The problem will no longer be there. In spirit he will receive revelation.
This turning to the spirit is the way to take care of all your everyday problems. If you need direction as to which way to go, talking to others will not make you clear. You will just get more befuddled. Simply turn to your spirit and pray, “O Lord! O Lord! Which way shall I take?” Then you will be clear in spirit. By setting your mind on the spirit and praying, you are one with the Lord and can be assured that the sense in your spirit is from Him. “The mind set on the spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).
The Word exhorts us to walk according to the spirit (v. 4). The Bible first serves to develop our spirit. As we read its pages, especially as we pray-read it in spirit, our spirit is nourished and developed. Second, the Bible corrects and preserves us lest we veer from the spirit. Since the spirit is abstract, we may misinterpret our inner sense. Thus, we need the Bible as a standard. Suppose, for example, we have the feeling that we should beat our wife. Since such a feeling is contrary to what the Bible says, we can be sure that the feeling we have is wrong. Some brothers may be praying about wearing their hair long, to give another example. Their sense may be that it is all right. First Corinthians 11:14, however, says that man should not have long hair. This is the Bible preserving us from being led off from the spirit.
Our living and our activities must not be according to the dead letter of the Bible, however, but according to the living spirit.
To remain in spirit, you must pray. If you neglect to pray constantly, you will find yourself out of the spirit. By constant exercise you will become a person in spirit. In the last book of the Bible, John said he that “was in spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). You must also be one who is in spirit. Do not desire the praise of others for your good living. Most people who seem good to us are in their soul. Do not aspire to be a good person in your soul. You need to be in spirit when you speak, when you express your attitudes, when you love others, and even when you hate. All your daily living should be in spirit.
Then when you go to the meetings, you will be full of the Spirit. You may pray, or testify, or read a verse. Whatever you do, the spirit will be released. Do not think that shouting releases your spirit. If you are not daily exercising the spirit in your living, there can be no content of the spirit in your shouting; you are only making noise. If you are saturated with the Spirit, however, when you open your mouth, your words will have the weight of the Spirit. You may shout spontaneously, but you should not shout purposely. You may say, “Lord, I praise and worship You. You are the Lord.” If you are filled in spirit because your daily living has been in spirit, your words will release life. If not, your words will sound empty; they will lack the anointing and the riches of the Spirit. If your shouting has an empty ring to it, you need to practice the proper exercise of the spirit during the whole day, not living by your soul or your flesh.
If you practice what I have suggested, you will experience the Lord’s leading, presence, and anointing. He will permeate and saturate you. Then when you preach the gospel, the spirit will be there. When you fellowship with others, when you visit them in their homes, and when you are in the meetings, the spirit will come forth.
The result of the Lord’s changing us from men of flesh into men of gold is a lampstand in reality. The seven Spirits have a way paved for them to be released from the local churches. The one lampstand with seven lamps can send forth God. This is what the testimony of the lampstand should be in each locality. The church, the golden lampstand, expresses the Triune God.
The key is to live according to the spirit. Set your mind on the spirit. “Unceasingly pray” (1 Thes. 5:17). Watch “unto this in all perseverance” (Eph. 6:18). “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thes. 5:19). Then you will be one spirit with the Lord.
The fullness of God dwells in Thee;
Thou dost manifest God’s glory;
In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;
As Spirit, oneness with me sought.
All things of the Father are Thine;
All Thou art in Spirit is mine;
The Spirit makes Thee real to me,
That Thou experienced might be.
The Spirit of life causes Thee
By Thy Word to transfer to me.
Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received,
Thy life in me is thus conceived.
In spirit while gazing on Thee,
As a glass reflecting Thy glory,
Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be,
That Thou might be expressed thru me.
Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate,
Deliv’ring me from the old man,
With all saints building for His plan.
Hymns, #501
