Search
Since we are of three parts, the Lord in His salvation takes three steps to deal with us. These are: (1) regeneration in our spirit, (2) transformation in our soul, and (3) transfiguration in our body. With every part of our being, the Lord has a specific dealing. Our spirit is the innermost center of our whole being and our body is the circumference. Between the center and the circumference is the soul. The Lord starts His salvation from the center by regenerating us in our spirit (John 3:6). At the very moment we receive Christ as our Savior, the Spirit of the Lord comes into our spirit to regenerate us by imparting Christ into our spirit as life. By this divine act our deadened spirit is not only made alive, but the life of God with its divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) is put into it. Thus, a change of life is begun from the very center of our being.
From the moment we are regenerated in our spirit, it is the Lord's desire that this change of life continue by spreading into our soul, that our mind, our emotion, and our will may all be transformed. Our spirit is regenerated and changed, but our mind, emotion, and will are not transformed and still remain the same. We have Christ as life in our spirit, but we do not have Christ in our soul. We need Christ to continually expand from our spirit into our soul till every part of our soul is transformed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18, ASV). Then we will think as He thinks, love as He loves, and choose as He chooses. We will have the likeness of the Lord in our practical life, because our soul is thoroughly saturated with His divine elements.
We may be regenerated in our spirit, yet not transformed in our soul. Our spirit is renewed, but our soul remains old. Our way of thinking, loving, and choosing may still be one hundred percent old. The Lord is in our spirit, but what about our soul? Thus, we need the renewing or the transformation of the soul.
Romans 12:2 says, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." You have been regenerated, but, may I ask, has your mind been renewed? Do you have a new mind, or do you still have the old mind? If our mind remains old, it means that we are not being transformed in the soul. It is quite possible for us to be regenerated in the spirit, but still be old in the mind, emotion, and will. There is no change in our thinking, our loving, and our choosing. In these things we are just the same as the unbelievers. The only difference is that we have been regenerated in the spirit and they have not. As far as the soul is concerned, our way of thinking, our way of loving, and our way of choosing are the same as theirs. This is the reason Romans 12:2 says: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." If our mind is renewed, then our soul will be transformed.
How can our mind be renewed? Romans 8:6 says, "The mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace" (ASV). We may have the mind of the flesh, or the mind of the spirit. When our mind cooperates with the flesh, it becomes the mind of the flesh, but when our mind cooperates with the spirit, it becomes the mind of the spirit. The mind is neutral. The question is whether the mind will stand with the flesh or with the spirit. If our mind submits to the desire of the flesh, it becomes the mind of the flesh, resulting in spiritual death. But if our mind submits to the spirit, it will be controlled by the spirit and become the mind of the spirit, resulting in life and peace.
Since Christ is in the spirit, when our mind submits to the spirit, it is submitting to Christ. Thus, He is given the opportunity to expand from our spirit into our mind. Formerly, nothing of Christ was within our mind, but when our mind submits to the spirit, the Lord has the opportunity to permeate, fill, and renew our mind with Himself. In this way our soul is transformed by the renewing of our mind. Our mind, thus, will be filled with Christ. This is why Paul is able to say in 1 Corinthians 2:16, "We have the mind of Christ." When we are regenerated in our spirit, we have the Spirit of Christ. When our mind submits to the spirit and lets Christ as the Spirit occupy it, we have even the mind of Christ.
Many times we meet some good Christians, but when we talk with them, we realize that in their mind is nothing of Christ. Undoubtedly they love the Lord; but in their mind, as revealed by their way of talking, there is nothing of Christ. They may talk about spiritual things and use spiritual terms, but there is nothing of the mind of Christ. It is still their mind and their way of thinking about the Lord. They do not have the mind of Christ.
There are other Christians in whom we discover a mind full of Christ, the Spirit. When they express their thoughts and ideas, we sense the presence of the Lord Spirit. Because their minds are under the control and direction of the spirit, the Lord Spirit has the opportunity to saturate and occupy their mind.
The transformation of the entire soul depends on the renewing of the mind. This is extremely important. After we are renewed in the mind, we will automatically be renewed in the emotion and in the will. The mind always adjusts the emotion, and the will is always influenced by the mind. Our thinking balances and limits our emotional feelings, and we make decisions according to what we consider, think, and understand. If our mind is opened to the Lord, the emotion and the will surely will follow. If our mind is closed to the Lord, then, of course, the emotion and the will also will be closed. If the mind is saturated and occupied by the Lord, the Lord will certainly take over our emotion and possess our will. It is for this reason we are told in Romans 12 that the transformation of the soul is by the renewing of the mind. If the Lord can possess our mind, He will automatically control our emotion and our will.
Many Christians love the Lord, but they will not submit their mind to the Lord. Many times a Christian will say, "Yes, I do love the Lord, but I think such and such. I love the Lord, but what about this or that?" They close their mind and imprison the Lord in their spirit. We have a hymn which says that the Lord Spirit has come into our spirit with the intention of flowing out from us, but once He has entered, He is enclosed.* Our spirit should be a residence for the Lord, but it has become a prison. How many Christians have Christ within them, yet He is locked within! There is no way for the Lord to come out, because their mind is not submissive. They have their way of thinking with their old and natural mind. As long as we retain the old mind, we remain old in the soul. We need to submit our mind to the Lord and let Him come into it to possess and renew it.
The life of Christ is always waiting for an opportunity to transform us, but we will not grant it because in our mind we are unwilling to submit to Him. The problem is our stubborn mind. We will not submit our thinking, our concepts, our ideas, our thoughts, our reasonings, our knowledge, and our understanding. This is the problem. As long as we keep our mind, Christ is shut within our spirit with no way out. We must pray: "Lord, now I understand that I must surrender my mind to Thee. If I love Thee, I must give up my thoughts and my concepts. I must submit my thoughts to Thy thoughts and my concepts to Thy concepts." Then the door will be opened and the way paved for the Lord to come out from our spirit and enter our mind. He is already in our spirit, but He is waiting and seeking an opportunity to spread from our spirit into our mind. If we submit our mind to Him, He will have a free way to saturate, fill, and renew it with Himself. Our natural mind must be transformed into the mind of Christ.
We must also be renewed in our emotion and will. Do you love others? What is the source and nature of your love? Do others sense something of Christ in your love? Do you have a strong will? What is the source and nature of your strong will? Do you give others a sense of Christ in your strong will? Years ago I stayed in the home of a certain brother. Though he was really a nice brother and full of love, yet I must confess that I was exceedingly troubled by his love. It was a real suffering to me. I could never sense in it one bit of Christ. Everything he did for me was good and full of love. But there is a vast difference between natural love and spiritual love. We need to be transformed from our natural emotion and will into the emotion and will of Christ. We must gain more and more of Christ in our emotion, in our will, in our love, and in our purpose. Then, eventually we will have Christ not only as our mind, but also as our emotion and as our will. Christ will be our thoughts, and Christ will also be our love and our purpose. Christ will be our everything.
What is the way of transformation? How can we be transformed from our natural being into the image of Christ? The only way is to deny the self and bear the cross. By comparing Luke 9:25 with Matthew 16:26, we see that the self is our soul. In Luke 9:25 the Lord says, "gain the whole world, and lose himself"; but in Matthew 16:26 He says, "gain the whole world, and lose his soul." This means that the self is the soul. Thus, to deny the self is to deny our soul. Since we have seen that our soul is composed of the mind, the emotion, and the will, then to deny our self simply means to deny our mind, emotion, and will—that is, to deny our thoughts, our concepts, our desires, our likes, our choices, and our decisions. This is real self-denial. If we would be transformed in our soul, we must deny our natural mind, emotion, and will. We must realize that our natural being—our mind, our emotion, and our will—has been crucified on the cross. Our old man has been crucified, not only the evil part, but also the good. All that we are, all that we have, and all that we can do have been crucified on the cross. We must fully realize this by faith. Based upon this fact we deny our natural mind, emotion, and will.
If we know the Lord's way of transformation, we will continually look to the Lord that He may strengthen us to do one thing: whenever we are going to think, to love, or to choose something, to say, Stop! Stop! Stop! When we are going to be humble, we must check ourselves: Is our natural humility on the cross? If not, we had better say, Stop! When we are going to love someone, we must first check to see if our natural love is on the cross. If not, Stop! This is acknowledging the cross in a practical way. Sometimes when we are about to speak, our mind is very active. We must check ourselves to see if our natural mind is crucified. If not, then stop! Stop thinking. If we are going to make a decision, we must check ourselves. Am I crucified or not? If not, then refrain from making any kind of decision.
What does it mean to stop? Simply to put our natural man to death. The result will be resurrection. With unbelievers, stop means stop. But with us who have been regenerated, stop means resurrection.
Once Brother Watchman Nee and I were having a time of fellowship together. He said: "Brother, here is a piece of sand, a little piece of stone. If you bury this piece of sand in the ground, what will result? Will anything come out? No, it is finished. But here is a grain of wheat. When you bury this grain of wheat, after a certain time something will grow up." This is a picture of us who have Christ within. We are not a piece of sand, but a grain of wheat. If we are willing to be buried, something within us will grow out. If we stop our thinking, Christ within us will be our thinking. If we cease from our mind, Christ within us will be our mind in resurrection. If we stop our love, Christ within us in resurrection will be our love. This is transformation. Then when we love others, they will not only sense our love, but they will also sense Christ. If we truly learn to realize the crucifixion of the Lord, whatever we do will convey the sense of Christ. Whatever we think, whenever we love, whatever we decide, we will impart a real sense of Christ. We will be transformed from our natural being into the image of Christ.
We have Christ the Lord within us as our life, and the only way for us to live this life is by the cross. We must learn to accept the cross, which means that all we are and have were crucified and put to death. This must be a reality in our daily lives. The practical way to realize the cross is to check ourselves whenever we are about to think, whenever we are about to show love to someone, or whenever we are about to make a decision. We must learn always to say, Stop! We must not only be stopped from doing evil things, but even more from doing good things. When we are going to pray, Stop! When we are going to do anything good, Stop! If we would stop ourselves, Christ will come out in resurrection. Stop, put ourselves to death; then death will bring in resurrection. We must be transformed by the cross in the Spirit. This is the practical way to experience the cross and Christ.
But don't think that saying Stop is so easy. Many times we say Stop, but we don't stop. It is not so easy to stop. Can you stop a brother with a strong mind from thinking? Can you stop him from considering? Can you stop a sister full of natural love and kindness from loving others with her natural emotion? The more you say Stop, the more she will love. Can you stop a brother with a strong will from doing what he decides to do? Impossible! In this matter we do need the Lord's grace.
Some are always in the mind, some are too emotional, and some have a strong will. We try to stop, but we cannot. Then what can the Lord do? The only way is for Him to put us into certain circumstances. If you are a man who is very much in the mind, the Lord will bring you into a set of circumstances in which your mind will involve you in trouble. He will put you into a certain kind of suffering. If you are a man with a strong will and none can subdue you, the Lord will place you in a certain kind of circumstance to make you suffer long. Your strong will, month by month and year by year, will be broken and subdued.
In chapters three and four of 2 Corinthians there are two main points. Chapter three says that we are transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory by the Spirit. But the next chapter tells of all manner of sufferings and circumstances. The Lord comes in to put us into certain situations in order to smash us. I have never known any brother or sister who really loved the Lord and yet never experienced any suffering. All the seeking ones who love the Lord always have some manner of suffering. If a brother is clever in his mentality, the Lord will put him into some perplexing circumstance. One day, he will finally say, "O Lord, no one is as foolish as I!" Before this he always thought he was quite clever. But after a certain amount of suffering, he has been subdued; he admits that he is foolish. Henceforth, he will fear his mind. You need not tell him to stop; he will stop automatically. He has been stopped once for all through the Lord's working in outward circumstances. There is now the mark of brokenness in his mind.
Some years ago I met a very good sister who was full of natural affection. Then the Lord sent a certain amount of suffering into her life because of her natural love. For years she was afflicted. After considerable time, she came to the point where she hated to use her emotion. There was no need to tell her to stop. From that time, whenever she loved others, the sense of Christ was in her love. She had been transformed from her natural love into the love of Christ, which had been wrought into her by the transforming Spirit through her suffering.
The breaking of our natural soul-life is a lesson which many saints must learn in a hard way. In some cases, it is easy to learn. We need only realize that the Lord is within as life and learn to check ourself by the cross. Some learn this lesson without much difficulty, but for a great number of brothers and sisters it is not so easy. They must experience much trouble and suffering. Some are dealt with for five years, some for ten, and others even longer. All kinds of suffering are brought to them. But they are not to be pitied. They are in the hands of the Lord. Their "outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed" (2 Cor. 4:16, Darby's New Translation). When you meet them after two or three years of the Lord's dealing, more of Christ is within them. After another two or three years, even more of Christ will be within them. I do not mean that they will say more about Christ. They may not say anything about Christ, but the reality and sense of Christ will be within them. I have heard some talk much about Christ, but the more they talked, the less they had of Christ. It is not a matter of talking about Christ, but of having Christ wrought into us. If you have learned the lesson of being broken, the riches of Christ will be wrought into you. When others meet you, they will sense the fullness and the image of Christ. The natural being has been transformed into the image of Christ. Christ will not only be what you speak, but He will also be the very element of your mind, emotion, and will. The substance of Christ will be in your thinking, in your loving, and in your choosing. There will be a sense of Christ in whatever you are and do. You have been transformed into the image of Christ through the work of breaking in sufferings.
We must first realize that we have been regenerated and that Christ has come into our spirit. Then we must learn to apply this indwelling Christ in our daily life. We need to take the instructions in this message and practice them. When you first learned to drive, you were instructed in all the procedure of driving. You had to practice starting the engine, shifting the gears, and driving the car. It would be foolish to push the car. The car runs; yet you must practice how to run it. Even if you pray, "Lord, I am so helpless, so weak; help me to push the car," it will not help. But isn't this the way we pray? "Lord, help me in this matter; it is so easy for me to lose my temper. Help me, Lord; it is so hard to overcome this weakness. O Lord, Thou art almighty; Thou canst help me." I tell you, the Lord will never help you! The more we pray and ask Him to help us not to lose our temper, the more we will lose it. We have forgotten that the Lord is within us. We must apply Him. Supply the car with fuel and it will run. The divine power is within us, waiting to be released. I was saved by the Lord more than ten years before I knew this. One day He opened my eyes to see that someone very powerful is within me, and that this storage of power is nothing less than Himself.
Many Christians do not know how to apply Christ as their life. They know how to cry, "Lord, help me, help me," but the Lord will never help them. He is dwelling within them waiting to be applied. To do this, we must first realize that Christ is within us. Then we must learn to deny ourselves. We must deny our natural mind, our natural emotion, and our natural will. We must learn to put ourselves to death and give the Lord a chance. This is why the Lord tells us to deny ourselves and bear the cross, that is, to put ourselves under the death of the cross. If we do this, the Lord will resurrect us. After resurrection, our mind, our emotion, and our will—our whole soul—will be in the Spirit, full of Christ. Then we will be transformed into the image of the Lord. We must learn to say, "Lord, I deny myself in thinking, in loving, and in choosing. I commit my whole being into Thy hands. I take Thee as my mind, as my emotion, and as my will." If we continue putting ourselves to death and letting the Lord raise us up in resurrection power, our whole being will be transformed and saturated with Christ.
We already have all the riches of Christ. All we need now is a little instruction to apply what we have. We have Christ within us. We must forget about our old way of praying that the Lord might help us. The Lord never answers us when we pray in this way. Stop, use the gasoline, and the car will run. This is the deliverance of the Lord; it is not our working.
Brothers and sisters, you have Christ within you, but do you apply Christ in your daily life? Christ is the life, the life-supply, and the power, but is this a reality to you? Or is it like a beautiful building without an entrance? We must put these instructions into practice. When we are about to think, desire, or decide, we must stop and contact the Lord who is within. Then we will learn to apply Him. We must deny ourselves and contact Him in the spirit. Then we will be transformed by Him, who is the Spirit within us, to His image, from one stage of glory to another.
Since the soul is composed of the mind, emotion, and will, there are some who might think that if we deny the self, that is the soul with these parts, we will not be able to live. But we must realize that there is a difference between the life of the soul and the faculties of the soul. The life of the soul is one thing, and the faculties of the soul are another.
Allow me to illustrate with a married couple I knew in China. The brother was so spiritual, and the sister as a wife was so submissive. Whenever you went to their home or met with them, you sensed that the husband was the life to the wife. Even though she had her own life, she relinquished it and took her husband as her life. She never spoke anything of her own, but always according to her husband. If you asked, "Sister, do you like this piano?" she would never say whether she liked it or not. Instead, she would say, "My husband likes it." Perhaps you would ask, "Sister, do you like the new meeting hall?" She would answer, "My husband says it is wonderful." With her, it was always "my husband," "my husband"; yet she spoke. She gave up her life and took her husband as her life; yet she still used the faculties of her soul. We brothers always thought that sister was wonderful because she always took her husband as her life. She gave up her own life; yet she still used her faculties. That is, she still used her mind, her emotion, and her will.
The natural life of the soul has been crucified on the cross, and we must take the Lord as our life. We must give up our natural life, the life of the soul, and take the Lord in the Spirit as our life. But this does not mean that we give up the faculties of our soul. What we must give up is the life of the soul, not the faculties of the soul. All the faculties of our soul still remain as the organs to be used by the Lord in the spirit.
The more we are with the Lord in the spirit, the more keen we will be in our mind. Before we take the Lord as life, we may be quite dull in our thinking. But if we deny ourselves and take the Lord as our life, we will be very keen in our mind. In China there were quite a number of older sisters who never had any kind of education; yet they dearly loved the Lord and learned how to give up themselves and take the Lord as their life. After two or three years they became very keen in their mind, especially when one shared something of the Lord with them. If you told them the first word, they would know the last word. But with those who have little love for the Lord, even though they have a Doctor's degree, there is little comprehension of spiritual things. When you speak with them of the Lord, they say, "What is that? I cannot figure it out."
It is the same with the emotion. Do you think the Lord demands that we abandon the faculty of our emotion? No; the Lord demands that we give up the life of our emotion. If we love the Lord and are really filled with the Lord Spirit, we will be very emotional. A person who is not emotional can never be spiritual. You cannot ask a chair to be spiritual, for nothing without emotion can be spiritual. A spiritual person is a very emotional person. If you do not know how to love, how to weep, how to be happy, how to be sorry, I am afraid you are not a Christian. The most spiritual person is the most emotional, yet their emotion is under the control of their spirit. They are spiritually emotional. The Apostle Paul was very emotional. We read that many times he wept and was quite tender in feeling, in love, in mercy, and in compassion. He was not naturally emotional, but spiritually emotional. His emotion was under the control of his spirit.
A spiritual person is not only keen in the mind and tender in the emotion, but also strong in the will. Not one spiritual person mentioned in the Scriptures is like a jelly-fish, without any backbone. It is the naturally emotional person who is like a jelly-fish. All the spiritually emotional persons are tender, yet very strong in the will. The more you are in your spirit, the more strong you will be in your will. A spiritual person is one who is keen in the understanding of his mind, sensitive in the feeling of his emotion, and strong in the purpose of his will. This reveals that all the faculties of the soul are still there, but renewed and improved.
We must realize, therefore, that it is not the faculties of the mind, emotion, and will that must be crossed out. It the life of the soul that must be given up. We need to realize that the natural life of the soul has already been put to the cross and that we must take Christ as our life. But the faculties of our soul still remain as instruments to be used by the Spirit to express the Lord Himself.
There may be two brothers who are very thoughtful, but one is naturally thoughtful while the other is spiritually thoughtful. With the first, while he is very thoughtful, there is no sense of anything spiritual or of the Lord. But with the other, whenever he speaks, you sense something out from the spirit and of Christ. It is the same with two brothers who are ministering. One brother ministers in the mind, and the other ministers with his mind also; but with the first there is no sense of anything of the Lord. With the second, however, you sense that he is rich in thought, yet strong and fresh in his spirit with something of the Lord. While he is speaking in his spirit through his mind, the richness and freshness of the Lord are there. With the first, the source is his mind; but with the second, the source is not his mind, but the Lord in his spirit. Something comes out of the Lord from his spirit through his mind.
One of the best translations of Romans 8:6 is: "For the mind set on the flesh is death; but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace" (New American Standard New Testament). Our mind is a part of the soul, yet when it is set on the flesh it becomes a mind of the flesh, and when it is set on the Holy Spirit with our spirit, it becomes the mind of the spirit. This means that when our mind is used, controlled, and directed by the Holy Spirit with our spirit, it is the mind of the spirit. In this way the mind is not the life of the soul, but a faculty of the soul to be controlled, directed, and used by the Holy Spirit with our spirit. Then it becomes the mind of the spirit.
We must learn the lesson of denying the natural mind, emotion, and will, and putting them all under the control of our spirit with the Holy Spirit. We must deny the life of the soul and take the Lord as our life in the spirit to control all the parts of the soul that they might be used to express Himself.
First Corinthians 2:11 tells us that the spirit of man knows. The mind is an organ to be used by our spirit to know. Then 2 Corinthians 7:13 says that the spirit of Titus was refreshed with joy. This shows that our spirit joys or rejoices through the emotion. In the Epistles of Paul we are told many times to exercise our mind and emotion in the spirit. Many times he encourages us to be joyful, to be happy, to rejoice, and even to enjoy ourself in the Lord. We must exercise our spirit to use our mind and emotion. Then Acts 19:21 says, "Paul purposed in the spirit." This simply means that Paul exercised his will in his spirit. He made a decision with his will under the control of his spirit. This does not mean that he was a man in the will, but that his spirit directed his will. Paul was so much in his spirit that his mind, emotion, and will were all used by the Holy Spirit with his spirit.
Whatever we do, we must first reject our natural mind, emotion, and will. This means to reject ourselves and take the Lord Jesus as our life. This is done by returning to our inmost part to sense what is there in our spirit. While we are listening to a brother speaking to us, we must reject ourself with our natural thinking in order to take the Lord in that particular matter as our life. This is the way for us to act as a normal Christian. If we do this, our spirit in which the Holy Spirit is dwelling will have opportunity to express more of the Lord within us. We must continually learn to care for the inner anointing, the inner registration, the inner sense, deep within our spirit. If we go along with this sense, we will be those who are walking in the spirit. Then all the faculties of our soul will be renewed, enriched, and improved with the Lord. I do not say that the life of our soul will be improved—that will be put death. But all the faculties of our soul will be improved and transformed to express the Lord adequately and fully in our daily life.
In the way of His salvation, the Lord firstly regenerates us in our spirit that we may have Him within us as our life. Then He begins to transform us in our soul that He may saturate, fill, and possess our whole being. Thus, we may be transformed into His image to be His very expression even now while living on this earth. By His regeneration in our spirit we receive His divine life. By His transformation in our soul we grow in His life and eventually become mature in His life. Then at His coming back, He will transfigure us in our body.
Our spirit has been regenerated and our soul may be also fully transformed, yet our body still remains old. With all its physical weakness and illnesses, it is under the power of death. It is still mortal and subject to infirmity and death. Though it may be quickened today by the Lord's Spirit that dwells in us (Rom. 8:11), yet it is a mortal body, subject to death and needing to be fully redeemed (Rom. 8:23). Today, by cooperating with Him in our spirit, we may experience the Lord's Spirit spreading His life-power into our body to quicken and even to saturate it to a certain degree. But regardless of how much it may be quickened and even saturated by the Lord's Spirit, it still requires the Lord's full redemption. This is why we often groan within ourselves. But, praise the Lord, when He comes back, He will transfigure this "body of humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory" (Phil. 3:21, ASV). Then "we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2), not only in our spirit and in our soul, but also in our body. By that time we shall be in His full likeness both inwardly and outwardly, from the very center of our being to the full circumference, from our innermost spirit to our outermost body. That will be the ultimate consummation of the Lord's salvation. Thus, we will enjoy the Lord's redemption and salvation to the uttermost. Hallelujah! That is what we are now waiting and looking for (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:20).
