Prayer: Lord, how we worship You as the Triune God, the very processed God. We thank You that You have gone through so many processes, and You have achieved so much, making Yourself even a law within us—the law of the Spirit of life. Lord, we thank You for this wonderful oracle, an oracle comprised of all the seeking saints. O Lord Jesus! How we praise You for Your recovery, that You have opened up Your Word, even Romans 8, to us. Lord, we trust in You again. We have no trust in ourselves. Thank You for the cleansing blood, and thank You for the anointing ointment. Lord, we are here waiting on You. Lord, You know how much we look unto You. Lord, grant us new thought, the fresh up-to-date word. Lord, grant us the instant utterance of the rich expression, even, Lord, the instant understanding. Lord, we are unable to speak; neither can we listen. Lord, help us. We surely need Your help. Lord, we like to be helped by You. Thank You, Lord. We have the confidence that You are one spirit with us in the speaking and in the listening. Oh, Hallelujah! Victory is Yours! Oh, defeat must go to the enemy! Put him in the corner tonight! Shame him again! Thank You, Lord. Amen.
In this chapter we need to consider Romans 8:5-8. Doctrinally, it is difficult to understand these verses. If you merely study these four verses doctrinally, all you will get is a puzzle. Your study will lead you into a thick forest. After I was saved in 1925, I studied these four verses a lot. The more I studied, the more I could not understand. Now I would say that to understand these verses you need some experience. These verses could only be apprehended according to your experience. If you do not have the experience, you cannot understand them.
The main point in verse 5 is the minding. It is not the thinking but the minding of the things of the Spirit. Verse 5 indicates that those who are according to “something” mind “something.” By reading it in this way you can see that minding is the major thing. What are you minding? Are you minding the things of the Spirit? This does not mean just thinking or reasoning but minding.
What then is the major point in verse 6? The major point is the setting of the mind. There is a difference between minding the things of the Spirit and setting the mind on the spirit. One is minding, and the other is setting the mind on something.
Verse 7 says, “The mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be.” The major thing in verse 7 is a mind set on the flesh. This is a little more complicated. First, there was the minding of the things of the Spirit and also the setting of the mind on the spirit. This major point in verse 7 is more complicated because it brings in another element, that is, the flesh. Now the problem is not only your mind but also the flesh and the mind set on the flesh. So the major thing in this verse is the mind set on the flesh.
Verse 8 says, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The major item in verse 8 is the matter of being in the flesh. Thus, these four verses cover four major things: minding the things of the Spirit, setting the mind on the spirit, the mind set on the flesh, and being in the flesh.
Most Bible readers are distracted from the major things in these four verses. Rather, they pay their attention to other points, such as life and peace in verse 6. Others may pay attention to dark things, to black things, such as death. Some have written concerning enmity against God using verse 7. They also spoke of what it means to be subject to the law of God. Some also talk about the disability, or the impossibility, mentioned in verse 7. Then in verse 8 they pointed out that the flesh is unable to please God. These points, however, are not the major points. The major things are a mind set on the flesh or on the spirit and the matter of being in the flesh.
Now we need to consider these matters in more detail. What does it mean to mind the things of the Spirit? And what does it mean to set the mind on certain things? In these verses there are the mind, the flesh, and the spirit. Of course, the flesh is something negative and very black. The spirit is very positive and very white. In between these two is the mind, which is neutral and gray. The flesh could never be neutral. It is always black; it could never be gray. In like manner, the spirit is always white; it could never be gray or neutral. But the mind in between these two sometimes turns to black and sometimes turns to white. It is neutral. The mind is something turning all the day long.
What is the difference between minding and setting the mind? We may consider that both of these are green: one is light green, and the other is dark green. Minding the spirit is light green, while setting the mind on the spirit is dark green. This means that minding is not so strong as setting the mind. Setting the mind is much stronger.
In Romans 8 the mind is set either on the flesh or on the spirit. Where then is the neutral mind? The neutral mind is found in Romans 7:25. There Paul says, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.” The mind in this verse is a kind of independent mind, subject neither to the flesh nor to the spirit. We may consider that independent mind as being in the color of gray. It is neutral. Many Christians have such a neutral mind. The neutral mind will just make you a wretched man. It will make you a miserable, pitiful man. The neutral mind in chapter 7 is not bad; it serves the law. But the mind in 8:7, which is set on the flesh, is against the law. In other words, in 7:25 there is a gray mind, but in 8:7 there is a black mind. Now the question is: How do you make your mind black? Or how do you make your mind white? It all depends what you set your mind on. If you set your mind on the flesh, you make your mind black. If you set your mind on the spirit, you make your mind white. Not many can have a gray or a neutral mind. It is not so easy to keep your mind independent. How can we practice setting the mind on the spirit so that we will have a white mind? We have to realize that the beginning of the setting is the minding. First, we mind the things of the Spirit, and then we set the mind on the spirit.
Let us also read another verse, Ephesians 4:23: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Here the spirit becomes the spirit of the mind. No doubt, this means that the spirit becomes one with your mind. This tells us that our mind can be one with our spirit and that our spirit can be the spirit of our mind. Actually, such a mind with which the spirit is one is a mind set on the spirit. This means that to set the mind on the spirit is just to have or to make your mind one with your spirit. Ephesians 4 speaks of the spirit of the mind for renewing, and Romans 8 speaks of the mind of the spirit for interceding. How can you make your mind one with the spirit? By constantly minding the spirit. In other words, how can you make the light green darker? By coloring it again and again and again. By adding more color, the light green becomes darker. By minding the spirit again and again, your mind is eventually set on the spirit. In other words, it makes your mind one with the spirit.
For many years I have been trying to practice being spiritual and to find a way or a secret to be spiritual. A number of books have been written by Christian teachers, telling people how to be spiritual. After many years of experience I would say that the way to be spiritual is to set your mind on the spirit, making your mind one with the spirit. This is to be spiritual. When your mind is one with the spirit, you are spiritual. When you set your mind on the spirit, making your mind one with the spirit, it is at that time that you are really in the spirit. This can be proved by two verses on the negative side. Verse 7 speaks of “the mind set on the flesh,” and verse 8 speaks of “those who are in the flesh.” This indicates that if you set your mind on the flesh, you make yourself to be in the flesh. If you mind the flesh or set your mind on the flesh, you are in the flesh.
In the same principle, the way to be in the spirit is to set your mind on the spirit, making your mind one with the spirit. Then you are in the spirit. When you are in the spirit, you are spiritual. When you are in the flesh, you are fleshly, or even fleshy. How can the minding of the Spirit become the setting of the mind on the spirit? To use our illustration once more, how can the light green become dark green? When we call on the Lord’s name, when we pray-read the Word, when we fellowship with the saints, when we attend the meetings, when we read the ministry, we get more “color” added to us. When we sing and praise, more “green” is added to us to make us “dark green.” We have to do these things again and again and again. I have been very much impressed and helped by watching the young ones practicing the piano. It is very difficult for my fingers to touch all those keys. It is really an activity, a doing, to me. But after someone practices a number of years, it becomes not a matter of activity but a principle of law. It is the same in typing. In my English college I learned to type in 1925. In order to graduate from that typing lesson, we had to type sixty words per minute. But for many years I have not practiced typing. Occasionally, I type an envelope or a short note. Because of the lack of practice, my fingers work mostly by activity. Sometimes, of course, they work by law. In my memory I cannot remember where the keys are, but when I put my fingers on the keys, my unknowledgeable fingers right away become knowledgeable because fifty-six years ago I practiced a lot. The point is this: you get used to a certain thing by practicing it. Then the activity becomes a principle.
You have to begin with minding and keep minding by these few practices of calling on the Lord’s name, of pray-reading the Word, of fellowshipping with the saints, of attending the meetings, of singing the praises, and of reading the Life-study messages. These are good practices. These may be considered like the keyboard of a piano. You need to practice playing on these keyboards. You need to get used to playing on these keyboards until something is built up in your being. Then that practice of the minding will become the setting of the mind. That practice of minding makes your mind one with the spirit. If you consider the illustration of playing a piano or typing on a typewriter, you will realize that this is altogether possible. If you will practice, you will make it. When your mind is set on the spirit, making your mind one with the spirit, then the spirit becomes the spirit of your mind. There would be no distinction between the mind and the spirit; there would be no separation. The two would become one. Your mind would be the spirit, and your spirit would be the mind, because your mind would be on the spirit, and your spirit would be saturating your mind. When this is the case, the law of the Spirit of life functions not by activity but by principle.
We will leave the two major things found in verses 7 and 8 until another time, and instead we will read Romans 8:26-27 concerning the interceding Spirit: “In like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. But He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God.” Here the mind is mentioned once again, but it is the mind of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:23 speaks of the spirit of the mind, but Romans 8 speaks of the mind of the Spirit. The spirit of the mind is for renewing, and the mind of the Spirit is for interceding. In Ephesians 4:23 the spirit becomes the spirit of the mind, and in Romans 8 the mind of the Spirit is for interceding. The mind becomes the mind of the Spirit.
Now we have to ask: whose mind is this? It is difficult to say, because now the Spirit is mingled with your spirit, and the Spirit here is interceding within you. In our groaning, there is the groaning of the Spirit. The Spirit groans in our groaning. Even we can say that it is the Spirit’s groaning groaned by us, uttered by us. So it is actually our groaning. In the same principle, it is the Spirit’s mind, but now the Spirit’s mind is one with our mind because our mind is set on the spirit. Doctrine cannot help you much to understand these matters. Only by experience can you understand these matters because they are too subjective. Anything related to life, even the physical life, is subjective.
Sometimes we have the burden to pray, yet we do not know what to say. At such a time we may groan, “O Lord, O Lord.” This is our groaning because it is uttered by us, yet that groan begins with the mingled spirit. It begins in our spirit and comes out of the depth of our being. That was not merely a sound of groaning. Within the groaning there was a kind of mind because there was a kind of thought or kind of meaning in it. This means that the mind is involved, but what kind of mind or whose mind is that? It is the Spirit’s mind, but it is not merely the Spirit’s mind but the Spirit’s mind mingled with our mind. Our mind is set on the spirit, making our mind itself one with the Spirit’s mind. Only the Lord knows what kind of mind this is.
The Bible is really a book of puzzles. For example, verse 27 says that He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is. Whose heart is mentioned here? Surely this is not the heart of the Spirit; this must be our heart. God searches our heart, yet He knows what the mind of the Spirit is. This proves to us that the Spirit here is not the independent mind of the Spirit; it is the mind of the Spirit mingled with our mind and becoming a part of our heart. It is our heart and the Spirit’s mind. God searching our heart knows the mind of the Spirit. This is wonderful! This tells us one thing: our mind is one with the Spirit. The Spirit’s mind is one with our mind, and our mingled mind even has become a part of our heart. The Bible’s revelation gives us a clear view of such a mingling. Our mind could be set on the spirit making our mind one with the Spirit. So the Spirit’s mind is one with our mind, and this mingled heart, this mingled mind, becomes a part of our spirit. When we groan, our groaning is not a kind of religious prayer but an aspiration from the depths of our being where the mingling of divinity with humanity is.
If we are experiencing such an operation within us, how could the law of the Spirit of life not function? Surely the law of the Spirit of life would spontaneously function within us. This operation fulfills the requirement of the law of the Spirit of life to work by principle, freeing us from the law of sin and of death.
