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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1; Job 12:10; Num. 16:22; 27:16; Rev. 22:6; Prov. 20:27; Rom. 1:9; Luke 1:46-47; Acts 17:16; 1 Cor. 5:3-4; 16:18; 2 Cor. 2:13; 7:1, 7:13; 12:18; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12; Phil. 1:27; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4
In this book we will cover one very important thing—our human spirit. First, we need to see that the spiritual life, the divine life, the eternal life, the uncreated life, is just God Himself in Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The divine life is the divine Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, who has come into us as our very life. If He did not come into us, He could not be our life. Anything outside of you can never be your life. For anything to be your life, that very thing must be able to get inside of you.
This spiritual life, which is God Himself, has come into us, but into what part of us? For instance, you take in food, but you do not take it into the eyes. You do not take food into the ears. You take food into the mouth, and through the mouth the food gets into your stomach. The stomach is the proper place for you to store and contain food. In like manner, God as life has come into us—into our spirit. But our human spirit, so strategic to the divine life, has been missed by most Christians.
When I was a young Christian, I listened to a good number of Christian teachers. I never heard one word from them saying that we have a human spirit. This matter is so prevailingly mentioned in the Scriptures, yet most Christians have missed it and are still missing it.
The Lord desires to recover the inner life with the church life. The inner life is basic for the church life. If we are not so adequate, so prevailing, in the inner life, it is hard for us to have a proper church life, because the church life is a composition of the inner life in all of us. We have to know the inner life, yet the inner life is a matter absolutely in our spirit.
When we go to school, we study by using the proper organ—our mind. But we come to the church to contact God, to worship God, by using another organ—our spirit. This is not the Holy Spirit. Whenever you mention the word spirit to most Christians, they immediately consider the Holy Spirit. They seldom consider that we have a human spirit. But we do have a human spirit! Besides God’s Holy Spirit, there is our human spirit.
We come to the church to serve God, to contact God, to deal with God by using our spirit. When you go to the playground to have some physical exercise, you have to use your physical body. When you go to school to study, you have to use your mind. But when you come to the church to contact God, you have to use your human spirit.
Genesis 2:7 shows us clearly how God created man. God created man with two kinds of materials. One was the dust of the ground. The other was the breath of life out of Himself. God used the dust of the ground as material to form a human body. Then God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Two kinds of materials, the dust to form a body and the breath of life getting into this body, resulted in a living soul, a living man. What was formed with the dust was the body, and man as a living soul is the soul. Then the breath of life, after getting into the body, is the human spirit.
I want to impress you as deeply as possible with this phrase the breath of life. Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word used most of the time for spirit is ruach. This word in Hebrew means “spirit,” “breath,” “air,” or “wind.” But the word for spirit here in Proverbs 20:27 is not the Hebrew word ruach, but neshamah—the same word used in Genesis 2:7 for “breath.” In the Old Testament there is at least one verse proving that the breath of life mentioned in Genesis 2:7 is the very spirit of man. The Moffat translation, in Proverbs 20:27, renders the word spirit as “conscience.” It says that the conscience of man is the lamp of the Lord because the conscience is the main part of the human spirit (cf. Rom. 9:1; 8:16).
Zechariah 12:1 tells us that in God’s creation there are three main items. First, God stretched forth the heavens. Second, God laid the foundation of the earth. Third, God formed the spirit of man. In God’s creation there are these three main things. With the heavens there are a lot of things, with the earth there are a lot of items, and with man there are many parts, but Zechariah 12:1 just mentions the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man.
With man the most important part is the spirit because the spirit of man is the center of his being, and this center is the very spot where God comes into man (John 3:6; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17). This is the strategic point. If we miss this point, we miss the mark. Although electricity has been installed into a building, there is one crucial spot—the switch. The receiver of a radio is the strategic spot where the radio waves come in. In like manner, the very central spot where God comes into man is the spirit of man.
Job 12:10 mentions the life of every living thing and the breath of all flesh of man. The King James Version says “the breath of all mankind” because the word ruach can mean “breath” as well as “spirit.” Darby’s translation renders it as “the spirit of all flesh of man.” The American Standard Version renders it as “the breath of all mankind” in the text, but in the note it says “our spirit, the spirit of man.”
All the other living things just have a soul; they do not have a spirit. Only we human beings have a spirit. A dog has a soul, but a dog does not have a spirit. A monkey is quite clever because a monkey has a soul, but a monkey does not have a spirit. Have you ever seen some little monkeys put up a shrine with an idol and worship it? Throughout history there has never been such a thing. No animal has ever worshipped something, but all human beings, whether cultured or barbarian, worship something because they have a worshipping spirit. There is a spirit within man that makes him special. A dog does not have this. A cat does not have this. Only we human beings have such a spirit.
Job 12:10 says that in God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath [spirit] of all flesh of man. All the living things have a soul, but we, the human beings, have not only a soul but also a spirit. We are absolutely different. In this matter we totally disagree with Darwin. We are different from the monkeys. The monkeys just have a soul, but we have a spirit.
In Numbers 16:22 and 27:16 God is the God of the spirits of all flesh. All flesh means fallen mankind. We all became and still are the flesh, but praise the Lord, within the flesh we have a spirit. The Lord God is not the God of the flesh; He is the God of the spirits. So if we are going to know God, to contact God, and to deal with God, if we are going to take God as our life, we have to know our spirit because God is the God of our spirit.
Revelation 22:6 tells us that the Lord is the God of the spirits of the prophets. In addition, 1 Corinthians 14:32 says, “The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” The spirits of prophets refers not to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirits of the prophets. When I was a young Christian, I was taught that with the prophets of God there is always the need of the Holy Spirit. I was never told that with the prophets of God there is also the human spirit.
On God’s side there is the divine Spirit, the Spirit of God. On our side there is the human spirit. When these two spirits meet one with another, there is a divine “deal.” We have such a divine deal by having God as the divine Spirit and our human spirit meet one with another. In dealing with God, the human spirit is just as important as the divine Spirit. Without the divine Spirit there is no way for us to contact God. In the same principle, without the human spirit there is no means, no organ, for us to contact God.
We all have to know that we have such a spirit. If you are going to be a good medical doctor, you must spend a long time studying the body. If we are going to be proper Christians, we must study the spirit.
In Romans Paul says, “I serve [God] in my spirit” (1:9). The very God whom Paul served, he served in his spirit. Do not think that my spirit is just a New Testament term. Psalm 77:3 says, “I remember God, and I moan; / I complain, and my spirit faints.” Also, verse 6 says, “I remember my song in the night; / I muse with my own heart, and my spirit carefully searches.”
My spirit is not just a New Testament term but also an Old Testament term. When the psalmist remembered God and considered all the troubles, his spirit fainted. He mused with his heart, and his spirit carefully searched. Brothers and sisters, have you ever exercised your spirit? Have you ever used your spirit? Do you have this kind of experience?
In Acts 17:16 Paul was provoked when he saw so many idols in the city of Athens. When he saw the idols, he was provoked in his spirit. He served God in his spirit, and he was provoked in his spirit by the evil things that he saw.
In 1 Corinthians 5:4 Paul says that he even gathered with the saints at Corinth with his spirit. While he was absent, he said, “When you and my spirit have been assembled.” He was away from Corinth, but he was attending their meeting. His body was away, but his spirit was attending their meeting. Have you ever attended a church meeting with your spirit while you were away from that church? While Paul was away physically from Corinth, he was still attending their meeting.
Furthermore, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:13 that he could not find his brother Titus, so he had no rest in his spirit. Then in 2 Corinthians 7:13 Paul says that Titus’s spirit was refreshed by the Corinthians. Also, 1 Corinthians 16:18 says that some of the saints have “refreshed my spirit and yours.” The spirit of Paul and the spirits of the saints at Corinth all had been refreshed by some dear brothers.
In Luke 1:46-47 Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord” (present tense), and “my spirit has exulted” (perfect tense) “in God my Savior.” First, Mary’s spirit exulted in God. Second, her soul magnified Him. The spirit comes first, then the soul. The spirit exults in God; then the soul magnifies the Lord. These are two things. To exult in God is to fellowship with God in the spirit. To magnify the Lord is to express the Lord with our soul.
We have to fellowship with the Lord in our spirit, and we have to express the Lord in our soul. First, we fellowship with Him; then we express Him. First, we exult in Him; then we magnify Him. We exult in Him in our spirit, and we magnify Him with our soul. These two organs are for two kinds of uses. If we are going to contact the Lord, we have to use our spirit. If we are going to express the Lord, we have to use our soul. Our spirit exults in God, and our soul magnifies the Lord.
Second Corinthians 7:1 says that we need to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit. We have the flesh, and we have the spirit. In these two parts we have to be cleansed from all kinds of defilement. Surely the spirit here is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not need to be cleansed from any kind of defilement, but our spirit does.
First Thessalonians 5:23 is a verse we have to pay attention to and remember: “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Never consider that the spirit is the soul and the soul is the spirit. Some Christian teachers say the spirit and the soul are just synonyms. However, in verse 23 they are not synonyms, because there is the conjunction and—“spirit and soul and body.” Two conjunctions join three things. The soul is different from the body, and the spirit is also different from the soul. God comes into our spirit and spreads from the spirit to the soul and eventually from the soul to the body. Then we will be wholly sanctified—spirit, soul, and body.
If you say that the spirit is the same as the soul, then I would point you to the monkeys, the tigers, all the beasts, and all the cattle. Job 12:10 refers to the soul of every living thing. Every living thing includes the animals. We are a living thing and we also have a soul, but besides the soul we have something super, something higher—the human spirit. We are different from the animals because they have a soul, but they do not have a spirit. We have a spirit. We have something more, something super, something higher, for us to contact God. We were made in the image of God with such a super organ, the human spirit, to contact God.
Hebrews 4:12 says that our soul can be divided from our spirit, as the marrow from the joints. We know the joints are pieces of bones, and within these bones is the marrow. The marrow is contained and hidden in the bones, but is absolutely different from the bones. The bones are like the soul, and the spirit is like the marrow. The spirit is hidden and contained in the soul, and the soul can be divided from the spirit.
Philippians 1:27 says, “Stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving together along with the faith of the gospel.” To stand firm we need to be in one spirit. To strive together for the preaching of the gospel, for the spreading of the kingdom of God, we need to be with one soul. To stand we need to be in one spirit, but to spread the gospel we need to be of one thought, of one mind, of one opinion, of one concept. This means that we need to be with one soul. So in one spirit is one thing; with one soul is another thing.
Finally, we must see that the Lord Jesus as life comes into us, but into what part of us? Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Nothing could be more clear or more definite. The Lord Jesus today is in our spirit. Hallelujah! Christ today is in our spirit. Never forget that Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) in our spirit.
First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Because Christ today is the life-giving Spirit, and we have an inner part, the human spirit, these two spirits come together and mingle and become one spirit. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Now we have a mingled spirit. It is rather hard to say whether this is the Holy Spirit or the human spirit because the two spirits are mingled as one.
Romans 8:4 tells us to walk according to the spirit. What spirit is this? We should walk not only according to the Holy Spirit and not only according to the human spirit, but according to the mingled spirit. Now the Holy Spirit and the human spirit are mingled as one. Here on this earth, in this universe, there is a spot where Christ as the life-giving Spirit is one with us. Now we just walk according to this wonderful, mingled spirit. Christ is the life-giving Spirit within our spirit.
If we are going to know and experience and enjoy this life-giving Spirit, we have to know our human spirit. This is why our human spirit is so strategic. Our human spirit is the center of our being and the unique organ for us to contact the Lord; in our spirit we can be one with the Lord.
