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Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:9a; 2:29; 7:6; 8:4; Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:10, 16; Acts 18:25; 17:16; 19:21; 20:22; 1 Cor. 2:4, 11, 13-15; 3:1-3; 5:3-4; Col. 2:5; 1 Cor. 4:21; Gal. 6:1; 1 Pet. 3:4; 1 Cor. 7:34; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Cor. 14:2, 14-16, 32; 16:18; 2 Cor. 2:13; 7:13; 12:18; Gal. 6:18; Philem. 25
The book of John reveals that the Holy Spirit begets the human spirit (3:6), and the human spirit worships the divine Spirit (4:24). Romans tells us to serve God in our spirit: “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit” (1:9). I am so grateful to the apostle Paul that he used this pronoun my before spirit. Paul designated clearly and definitely “in my spirit.” To serve God is not just a matter in the Holy Spirit but also a matter in our spirit.
If we have only electrical waves in the air and we do not have a radio with a receiver, how can we receive the electrical waves? On our side, practically speaking, what we need is a “radio” with a receiver. God has taken care of the heavenly electrical waves, and we have to take care of the receiver. Man can be likened to a radio. The Holy Spirit is like the heavenly radio waves. The spirit in man is like the radio receiver. The receiver is our spirit. God has done His part, and we have to take care of our spirit. We have to cooperate with God by preparing the proper organ to receive what He is, what He has done, and what He is going to do. There is no need for us to take care of the side of the Holy Spirit. That has been fully taken care of by God. We simply need to take care of our side, the human spirit.
The air may be full of electrical waves, but if we do not have a radio, we cannot receive them. If we have a radio, but the receiver within is wrong, it still will not work. We need to prepare a radio, and we need to regulate the receiver properly. When we get the radio, tune it, and regulate it, the music comes in. What we have to take care of is our human spirit. God has done everything, and God is going to take care of everything. What is needed is our cooperation and coordination. Our coordination that we render to God is to prepare our spirit, to regulate our spirit, and to tune our spirit.
Romans 2:29 tells us that today in the spiritual realm, in the kingdom of God, everything must be in spirit, not in letter. In spirit here is in contrast with in the flesh in the previous verse. The Jewish people had their circumcision in the flesh. Now Paul tells us that the real, spiritual circumcision is not in the flesh but in spirit. It is not something in letter but in spirit.
In Romans 7:6 we serve not in the oldness of the letter of the law, but we serve in newness of spirit because we are dead to the law and have nothing to do with the law. Some examples may help to illustrate these matters of the oldness of the letter and the newness of the spirit.
In 1937 I went to a certain prayer meeting in Hangkow, China. All the people knelt down, the pastor started to pray, and I closed my eyes and listened to the prayer. It was a very good composition. It surprised me greatly. I thought that this pastor must be a learned person; otherwise, he could not compose such a good prayer. Then I opened my eyes and looked at the pastor. He was reading! Then I found out that they have a prayer book. For every kind of meeting there is a certain kind of prayer. For Sunday morning service there are certain prayers. For a wedding there are certain prayers and certain verses to be quoted. For a funeral there are certain prayers and certain verses to be quoted. When you come to any kind of meeting, you just open to a specific portion in the prayer book. Everything is there.
Some of the people in the congregation said that whenever they came to a certain meeting, they knew what the first prayer would be, what the second prayer would be, and what text would be quoted. On each occasion the same verses are read, and the same prayer is made. Even the pastor has no need to go to the Bible. Their prayer book to them is the all-inclusive book. Every time they have a wedding, the pastor just goes to that certain portion and practices everything according to that prayer book. This is just the oldness of the letter.
In my whole Christian life, I have not seen many living weddings. Nearly all of them were dead. One pastor, however, instead of going on according to the regulations in letters, wept with tears before the bride and the bridegroom. Then he told the bridegroom, “Today you are not standing in my presence. You are standing in the Lord’s presence. I realize where you stand as a young man. I know you. I am so concerned today for you.” This was the newness of the spirit. This surprised the congregation. That day the pastor just broke through the dead letter. He broke through the oldness. Later on, that young man was really captured by God due to that wedding.
Today we must serve the Lord in the way of newness. When we come together to meet, we must meet in the way of newness. To be kept in the way of oldness is easy. If I were a pastor, it would be easy for me, having just studied four years in a seminary, to get myself acquainted with a prayer book and read certain portions for certain occasions. But if you are going to serve in newness of spirit you must keep yourself in the presence of the Lord and living in the spirit by contacting the Lord. Otherwise, you would not have the newness, but spontaneously you would have the oldness. To have the oldness is easy, but to keep the newness you need to contact the Lord day by day.
The children of Israel ate manna every day, but there was no oldness. Every day there was the newness of manna, the freshness of manna (Exo. 16:13-15, 21-22). Many people do their grocery shopping once a week. They buy their food and put it into the refrigerator for one week. But God did not give manna once a week. The children of Israel did not come out of their tents on Monday morning, gather manna, and then put it into the refrigerator to enjoy for one week. God sent the manna day by day, early in the morning.
If you love your bed, you miss the manna. You have to rise up every morning to contact the fresh dew since the manna always came down with the dew (vv. 13-14). You have to rise early to gather manna every morning. Every morning it is the same, yet every morning it is fresh. I do believe that what was in the heart of the Lord was that His people had to rise up early in the morning to contact Him.
We have the same Bible every morning, the same manna, but every morning it should be fresh under the fresh dew. It all depends on your contacting God. If, in your reading of the Bible, there is no contact with God, the same book becomes old. If there is the contact with God, the same book becomes new. To serve God today is not a matter of oldness but a matter of newness. Newness is just God Himself! Newness is in God! If you contact God, if you are in God, if you are one with God, whatever you say is new. For forty years the same manna came down again and again, but every morning it was new. To be new means to be in the presence of God, to be in God. We serve God today in the newness of His presence. I hate to see the oldness in the church meetings. We must learn to be new in the presence of the Lord in everything we do. Whatever we do we must have God in it. Then we have the newness.
In Romans 8:4 we are told to walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. The spirit here in Romans 8:4 is the mingled spirit, our spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit (v. 16; 1 Cor. 6:17). We have to walk according to our spirit because today the Holy Spirit is within our spirit and is even one with our spirit. When we walk according to our spirit, spontaneously we walk according to the Holy Spirit, because the two spirits are one.
Most people walk and do things according to the mind, according to what they think, and according to what they like. Some who walk according to the flesh are doing sinful things, while others are doing good things according to their mind, their thinking, and their likes and dislikes. But we Christians should walk according to the spirit. It is easy to discern the spirit from the flesh, but sometimes it is not easy to discern the spirit from the mind. Perhaps, for example, you may be thinking about visiting a brother, but deep within something is bothering you. You should walk not according to your thinking or your likes and dislikes, but just according to the “inner red light” or the “inner green light.” This is to walk according to your spirit. The flesh is our fallen body (Rom. 7:18, 24; 8:13), and the mind, the thinking organ, is a part of our fallen soul (Psa. 13:2; 139:14; Lam. 3:20). Most people walk according to these two things. When they walk in a better way, they walk according to their thinking. When they walk in a worse way, they walk according to their flesh. We Christians, however, should not walk according to either of these two, but according to spirit. We should not care merely for what is good or bad, right or wrong. We just care for the inner green or the inner red light. We just care for the spirit. We walk according to spirit.
Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The cross has to deal with our flesh, with our mentality, with our thinking, and with our likes and dislikes, that we may be fully walking by the Spirit who dwells in and mingles with our regenerated spirit. The more we walk by the Spirit, the more we are spiritual. To be spiritual simply means to be in spirit.
Romans 8:10 says that “though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” If you are faithful to the Lord, you will realize that, on the one hand, your spirit within is so alive, full of life, but, on the other hand, your body is dead because it is fallen and disabled. Some physically weak brothers and sisters love the Lord so much and are so faithful to the Lord. They discovered that their spirit within is so alive, full of life, yet their body without is disabled, weakened, and dead because of the sin we inherited from Adam. So we need to have our body redeemed, which is the full redemption (v. 23; Phil. 3:21). Our spirit has been regenerated, but our body has not been redeemed yet. We have a hope that someday we will enjoy the full sonship, the redemption of our body.
Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” This verse clearly tells us that there is the Spirit of God and there is our spirit, and these two spirits are one. The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit. The two spirits work together as one. First, this verse tells us that there are two spirits—the Spirit of God and our spirit. Second, this verse tells us that these two spirits work together, and third, it tells us that these two spirits work together for the sonship.
Romans 12:11 says we need to be “burning in spirit.” We need to be on fire. This means that first we are burned and then we burn others. We need to be on fire in our spirit. We are burned with the burning Spirit (Rev. 4:5), and then we burn others. Oh, to be fervent! To be burning! To be on fire! Then we serve the Lord.
Apollos in Acts 18:24 is an example of this. He was “fervent in spirit” (v. 25). He knew the Bible, yet still he was not so clear about God’s New Testament economy, about God’s way. However, he was burning in spirit.
In Acts 17:16 Paul was provoked in his spirit by the idols in Athens. Then in Acts 19:21 he purposed in his spirit; he did not make up his mind or make a decision in his will, but he purposed in his spirit. Then in Acts 20:22 he was “bound in the spirit.” He anticipated that he would be bound, captured, and put into prison (v. 23). Before his body was bound, his spirit was bound. By these verses we can realize that Paul was a person living, walking, working, acting, and moving in his spirit.
First Corinthians 2:4 says that when Paul came to Corinth the first time, his speech and proclamation were “not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit.” The apostle’s speech and proclamation were not from his mind with words of speculation but from his spirit with the release and exhibition of the Spirit, hence of power. Whatever we do, we have to demonstrate the Spirit, not our wisdom, eloquence, learning, or attainment. We should demonstrate the Spirit through our spirit in a simple way.
First Corinthians 2:11 says that only the spirit of man knows the things of man. Many people who are highly educated do not know what they are, who they are, where they are, or where they are going. Only the spirit of man knows the things of man. You have to go to your spirit.
If you have some problem with your husband, you have to go to the spirit. If you have some problem with your wife, go to the spirit! Then you will know! The spirit of man knows! Your spirit knows! If you are not clear about what you have to do with your wife, your husband, your children, or your brothers, go to your spirit. If you do not know how to deal with your brothers in the Lord, go to your spirit. If you do not know what to do with the church problems, with a church matter, go to your spirit. The spirit of man knows because it is the reality of man. Also, the Spirit of God reveals the things of God and the situation, the condition of man, to man in his spirit (vv. 11-12). So if we are going to know the things of man and the things of God, we have to come to our spirit. It is here that we know the things of man, and it is here that we see the things of God. We all have to come to our spirit. Then we are persons in the spirit, spiritual men and not soulish men. The soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God (v. 14). The soulish man is a man governed by his mentality. When we turn to the spirit and when we stay in the spirit, we become spiritual men.
In 1 Corinthians 2:13-16 and 3:1-3 there are three kinds of persons: spiritual, soulish, and fleshy. The soulish person is one who lives according to his mind, emotion, or will. He does not know or care for his spirit. He just lives, works, and walks according to his soul. The fleshy person is one who walks and lives according to the lust of the fallen body, the flesh.
A fleshy person so easily criticizes, condemns, and scorns other people. Another person may be so nice, always careful, full of consideration, and caring for others. Even if I were so poor, so bad, and so ugly, this nice person would not say a bad word about me. Yet this nice person may still be a soulish man because he may not even know that he has a spirit. He may be working on his Ph.D. in sociology and learning how to be humane by exercising his mind. On the other hand, a spiritual man is one who walks not according to the flesh, nor according to anything of the soul, but according to the spirit. Now he is a spiritual man, so he has the spiritual discernment; he can know the spiritual things, and he can even know all the things of man. A spiritual man is a wise man. The more you live in the spirit, the more you have the wise discernment of all things, even the things of God.
