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In John 6:63 the Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Both spirit and life are mentioned twice in this verse. In the first instance, the Spirit and life are connected together in the phrase It is the Spirit who gives life. In the second instance, spirit and life are separated in the phrase The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. The Lord’s words are spirit and are life. Romans 8:2 mentions “the law of the Spirit of life.” The Spirit is the Spirit of life, and this law is of the Spirit. Thus, it is the law of the Spirit of life. Verse 6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” Whenever we set our mind on the spirit, we have life and peace. Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” This matches what is said in John 6:63.
The Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24). However, as far as God’s relationship with man is concerned, we may say that God in eternity, before entering into time, was purely God, but when this God reaches man, what man touches is the Spirit. This means that when God is in His dwelling place, He is God, but when He comes out of His heavenly sanctuary and works on the earth to contact man, He is the Spirit who can be touched by man. In other words, God in Himself is God, but whenever He comes out of Himself to the earth to work, to contact man, and even to enter into man, what man touches is the Spirit. Hence, God being Spirit has two implications. On the one hand, He is God, and on the other hand, He is the Spirit. When He is in His sanctuary, He is God, but when He comes out of His sanctuary, comes into the midst of men, and enters into men, He is the Spirit. As the Spirit, He mingles with and joins with man to be one. In a sense, it is not God who mingles with and joins with man as one, but it is the Spirit who mingles with man as one. As the Spirit, God is joined with man’s spirit to be one spirit. Thus, God’s relationship with man is altogether a matter of the spirit. Therefore, the experience, living, and work of a Christian should be in the spirit.
We all know that the first experience of a Christian is salvation through regeneration. Regeneration is a matter of the spirit. The first time God touches man, and the first time man contacts God, man is regenerated in his spirit. Man’s being regenerated in his spirit is the first step of his having a relationship with God. In this first step man touches God in the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God joins with man in the spirit of man. In other words, the God who is Spirit enters into the spirit of man and is joined to man. This is regeneration. After our regeneration we need to have spiritual experiences, make spiritual progress, live a spiritual living, and do spiritual work. All of these must be in our spirit. This spirit is the Spirit of God fellowshipping with our spirit, being joined to our spirit, and being mingled with our spirit as one spirit. In regeneration the Spirit of God and our spirit become one spirit and therefore inseparable. Thus, our Christian living and work should be in this spirit.
Any time we do not live in such a spirit, regardless of whether we are right or wrong, we are not living a normal Christian life. The normal Christian life is not a matter of right and wrong but a matter of whether or not we are in the spirit. It is not that to rise up in the morning and then to lose our temper is wrong but to pray is right, or that to rise up in the morning and then to be angry with people is wrong but to have morning watch is right. What matters is whether our morning watch, reading the Bible, and praying are in the spirit or outside of the spirit. If our morning watch, praying, and reading of the Bible are in the spirit, then this is the normal Christian life. But if they are outside of the spirit, we are living a religious life, not a normal Christian life.
Some people may ask what the distinction between a Christian and a religious person is. In brief, a Christian is one who lives in the spirit; however, a religious person does not live in the spirit but in a kind of religious ritual. For instance, suppose you are a Christian, but you do not live in your spirit. Rather, you strictly observe religious regulations, read the Bible, and pray daily, living a life of Christian rituals. This is a religious living. Just because you read the Bible, pray, speak the truth to people, and attend services every Lord’s Day does not mean that you are living a Christian life. Many times our reading the Bible, praying, talking about the truth, or even preaching the truth are nothing but aspects of a religious living, not a living in the spirit. This is because our reading of the Bible, praying, speaking, and preaching of the truth are often outside of the spirit and are not in the spirit.
I hope that every Christian would be clear that the relationship God desires to have with us is a relationship in which He as the Spirit enters into our spirit and in which we saved ones live in this spirit. When we live in the spirit, we are living in resurrection. When we live in resurrection, we experience dying with Christ and ascending with Christ. In other words, when we live in the spirit, we live in the realm of resurrection, and the death of the cross has an effect on us. This death enables us to put off everything that is incompatible with God so that we may live in the heavenlies. At this time the heavenly condition is manifested in us. In such a spirit we can sense that we are heavenly people.
Hence, we see that there are five things that are linked together: first, God being Spirit; second, living in the Spirit; third, living in resurrection; fourth, experiencing the death of the cross; and fifth, experiencing ascension. In short, God is Spirit, and to live in the Spirit is to live in resurrection. Living in resurrection leads us to the experience of death on the one hand and the experience of ascension on the other. These five items are linked together. God is Spirit, so God is the first item, and the Spirit is the second item. To live in the Spirit is to live in resurrection, so resurrection is the third item. One who lives in resurrection will have the experience of death and ascension, so death is the fourth item, and ascension is the fifth item. These five items—God, Spirit, resurrection, death, and ascension—are linked to us.
In our spiritual experience, when we live in our spirit, we sense the presence of the Lord as a kind of transcendency. On the one hand, we experience death, which is a suffering to us, but on the other hand, we are brought into a heavenly realm, into a kind of spiritual reality, where we transcend over all hardship and suffering. This indicates that to live in the spirit is to live in a realm, a sphere, where there is God, the presence of God, the experience of death, and the experience of ascension. In other words, when we live in our spirit, we live in resurrection, and when we live in resurrection, we touch spiritual reality. In this spiritual reality we have the presence of God and the experience of death on the one hand and the experience of ascension on the other. Any time we turn to live in our spirit, we are living in resurrection, and at that time we sense the presence of the Lord. On the one hand, we experience death, which delivers us from all persons, things, and matters that are contrary to God, and on the other hand, we experience ascension, which gives us the sense that we are in the heavenly sphere. Not only God is with us, but heaven is also with us.
We have already seen these five great matters—God, God being Spirit, living in the Spirit being to live in resurrection, and living in resurrection causing us to have the experiences of death and ascension. However, we have not seen how these things are related to life, nor have we seen the matter of life. Whether we are speaking of the Spirit, resurrection, death, or ascension, the source is God. God is Spirit, and when the Spirit comes out and enters into us, we live in Him and experience resurrection. This resurrection brings with it death and ascension. All these matters are related to life and cannot be separated from life.
What is the relationship between the Spirit and life, and how are they distinct? We all know that the Holy Spirit gives life so that man may have life, yet we may not be clear about the difference between the Holy Spirit and life and between life and the Holy Spirit. For example, we all know that God is Spirit, and we also know the definitions of the Spirit and of God and their distinctions. Now we have to know what the Lord Jesus said concerning the Spirit. He said that it is the Spirit who gives life and that the words which He spoke are spirit and are life (John 6:63). Obviously, life is connected to the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Spirit of life, which is spoken of in Romans 8:2, is also referred to as the Spirit who gives life (v. 11). Romans 8 says that to touch the Spirit is to touch life and that the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (v. 6). These verses show us that the Bible links life and the Holy Spirit together.
We saved ones, in speaking about the Spirit and life, may often say things like, “This brother is quite good in life,” or, “This sister is very strong in the spiritual life.” Actually, this is the speaking of an unlearned person. Life does not carry distinctions, such as good or bad, strong or weak. Everything of life is good and beautiful; it is never bad or wrong. Everything of life is strong. Only death is not strong.
What is life? What is the relationship between life and the Spirit, and what distinguishes them from each other? Psalm 36 says, “With You is the fountain of life” (v. 9). The Lord is the fountain of life, and this fountain of life is in God. When the Lord Jesus came to the earth, John declared at the very beginning of the Gospel of John, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4). From this we see that life was in the Lord Jesus. In addition to this, the Lord Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25). The Lord is life, and life is in Him. Then in chapter 6 He said that it is the Spirit who gives life, and the words which He spoke are spirit and are life. In the age of the apostles, Paul says that the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). In Romans 8 he says that by setting our mind on the spirit we touch life and that the mind set on the spirit is life (v. 6). In 1 John 5 the apostle John even says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (v. 12). If we combine all these verses together, we can see that life is the Lord Himself.
We all know that God is the Spirit, that the Spirit is God, and that there is no difference between the Spirit and God. But as far as God’s relationship with man is concerned, there is a distinction. What is the distinction? When God comes to contact man, what man touches is the Spirit. Perhaps some people may ask why it is not enough to say that God is God. Why does the Bible say that God is the Spirit? When God was in the sanctuary, before He came to have a relationship with man, He was purely God. However, when He comes out of His sanctuary to reach and contact man, and when man worships and fellowships with Him, He is the Spirit. In brief, God coming to be touched by man is the Spirit.
What then is the distinction between the Spirit and life? Life is the content and substance of the Spirit. When the Spirit is received by us, He is life. When we touch the Spirit, we receive life. When God comes out and reaches man, He is the Spirit, and when the Spirit is received and touched by us, He is life. Thus, there are three simple steps that involve three items: God, the Spirit, and life. When God comes out, what we touch is the Spirit. When the Spirit is received and touched by us, He is life. Psalm 36 says that with God is the fountain of life (v. 9). The Gospel of John mentions that this life is in Christ Jesus and that He is the life (1:4; 11:25). Then the Epistles tell us that it is the Spirit who gives life (2 Cor. 3:6), that the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), and that when we touch the Spirit, we touch life. They also tell us that to set our mind on the spirit is life (v. 6) and that he who has the Son has the life while he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life (1 John 5:12).
In summary, God is in Christ, and the life of God is in Christ. In Christ is God’s life. Christ is also in the Holy Spirit, and this life is in the Holy Spirit. Hence, when the Holy Spirit comes into man, life also comes into man. When man touches the Spirit, he touches life, and when man receives the Spirit, he receives life. In other words, God in the sanctuary is God. But when God comes out to contact us, He is the Spirit, and when the Spirit is received and touched by us, He is life. To say it in reverse, life is the Spirit being received and touched by man.
Perhaps some people may ask how we may know when we have contacted the Spirit, when we are living in our spirit, and when we have touched the Spirit. A normal Christian life is a life of living in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, we will be living in resurrection. In resurrection are the experiences of death and ascension. Hence, the key to the Christian living is to live in the Spirit. When we live in the Spirit, we will have a condition or feeling of life and peace. Whenever we live in the Spirit, we touch life, because when the Spirit is received by us, He is life. When the Spirit is enjoyed and touched by us, He is life.
Therefore, the greatest proof of our living in the Spirit is that we are receiving, contacting, and touching life. After we receive this life, inwardly there is a kind of condition, taste, and feeling in us that we are fresh, living, strong, and powerful, and we deeply sense the presence of God.
There are four great characteristics and expressions of the life in us. Once we touch life, there will be four definite expressions, that is, four kinds of conditions or feelings that we will have. First, we will have a sense of livingness. To be living is to be enlivened. Sometimes we are strangely deadened inside. We feel as if we are deflated, and we are unable to be uplifted. This condition is proof that we have not been living in our spirit. When you talk to a brother or pray with a sister, you will know whether this person’s spirit is depressed or living. If their spirit is depressed, nothing will come out of them, and they will be unable to pray out their burdens. Whether a person is inwardly deadened or living is especially manifested in prayer. If a person is enlivened when he prays, this proves that he is filled with life inwardly, but if he is unable to utter a word in prayer, this proves that he is disheartened and has not been living in the spirit.
Many saints are unable to open their mouths in the Lord’s table meetings and the prayer meetings because they are inwardly deadened and have not been living in the Spirit. Throughout the whole day or the whole week they have been living not in their spirit but in their soul or even in their flesh. They have not been touching their spirit and are not in their spirit, so they are lifeless. When people contact them in the Lord’s table meetings and the prayer meetings, they find that they are inwardly deadened and depressed. When they want to pray, they cannot pray, and when they want to speak, they have nothing to speak. However, if throughout the whole week or the whole day they learn to live in their spirit and to touch the spirit, they will surely touch life. Then once they pray, their spirit will come out. Once they pray, they will touch life because their spirit will be living.
It is the same with those who speak for God on the podium. If they have not turned to their spirit or touched their spirit, they will dry up after a few sentences because they are cut off from the source of life in them. When we are in the spirit, we touch life, and the first expression of life is livingness. Our determination to pray more will not enliven our spirit. The only way for us to be enlivened is to turn from our outer man back to our inner man. Once we touch the Spirit inwardly, we touch life.
The Spirit is life, and life is the Spirit. The Spirit is God coming out to be touched by us, and life is the Spirit coming into us to be received and touched by us. Our spirit is our inner man, whereas our soul and our flesh are the outer man. If a Christian lives in his outer man all the time, living by his flesh, his soul, and his mind, emotion, and will, and does not turn to his inner man, he will be in death and will not touch life. Whenever man touches the Spirit, he lives, because it is the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63). In this verse the Greek word for life is used as a verb, indicating that the Holy Spirit “lifes” man. The Holy Spirit is life itself. Once He contacts us and touches us inwardly, He “lifes” us. It is the Spirit who gives life because the Holy Spirit Himself is life.
The Spirit is not in our thoughts, in our emotion, in our mind, or in our flesh. Rather, He is in our spirit. Whenever we are in our outer man, we are unable to contact the Spirit or touch life, but whenever we turn back to our spirit, we contact the Spirit and touch life. This is like an electrical switch. If we take off the cover from an electrical switch and touch the electrical wire, once we touch the electrical wire, we touch the electricity itself because the electricity is in the electrical wire. In the same way, the Spirit of life is in our spirit. Every time we turn to our spirit to touch the Spirit, we touch life, and once we touch life, we are “lifed,” that is, we live and become strong. Immediately, we will rise up from our feeling of depression, and our deadness will be made living. Hence, the first expression of life is livingness.
The second expression of life is freshness. What is it to be fresh? To be fresh is to be vigorous and living. When you meet a saint with the appearance of oldness, you know that he has not been living in the Spirit. One who lives in the Spirit is renewed daily and never gets old. A certain saint once testified that in 1933 he met an elderly Christian brother in Europe. This elderly brother was already over eighty years of age at that time and was not able to hear well. But when the saint fellowshipped with this brother, he enjoyed his spiritual freshness. According to his physical body, this elderly brother was not able to hear or speak much, but when people came to him, they could sense his inward freshness. This elderly man would hold the saint’s hand steadily and firmly and say, “Brother, to this day I cannot live without Him, and He cannot live without me.” Who is this “He”? This “He” is the Lord. How sweet a statement this is: “I cannot live without Him, and He cannot live without me.” These two sentences are so fresh! This brother did not need to use thousands of words. Rather, in two sentences he was able to cause others to touch God. This proves that he was inwardly living and fresh and had the presence of God.
The third expression of life is brightness. One who lives in the Spirit and touches the Spirit will be bright. There was once a famous preacher. By reading his writings, you could not get a sense of his person; however, when you listened to his speaking for the Lord on the podium, you could realize that he was as transparent as glass and as clear as crystal. This was because he was a man in the spirit.
Sometimes when you contact a person, you feel like you are touching a wall, a big stone, or a cave. Once you contact him, you have an unfortunate feeling. You feel as if you have fallen into a cave, an underground vault, or some place that is very dark and without any light or brightness. At other times, however, when you meet someone else and spend a brief amount of time with him, you feel that there is light and that everything is bright. The reason that a person lacks brightness is not because he does not have life within but because he is not living in the Spirit. Once a person lives in the Spirit, he touches the Spirit and has life because the Spirit is life. Life is the light that shines on man (cf. John 1:4). Once we touch life, this life is light. This is the third expression of life.
The fourth expression of life is strength. Life is powerful and does not fear anything. The wind cannot hurt life. Rather, it helps life to grow. The reason grass does not grow well sometimes is that it is not exposed to sunlight or wind. The places where grass grows well are the places where there is ample sunlight and moderate wind. Many times the exposure to sunlight, the blowing of the wind, and the beating of the rain do not destroy life. Instead, they help life to grow because life is strong and powerful.
There was once a certain person who was stumbled because the usher arranged for him to sit under a fan in the meeting. Because of this he never came to the meeting again. This is a weak Christian. We must realize that when a man is weak to the uttermost, he dies. Death is the expression of someone who is weak to the uttermost. The more living a person is, the stronger he is and the more life-energy he has, because life causes man to be strong. If we are such people, we will not be stumbled if we are asked to sit under a fan. We will not fall even if we are put in the basement. With life, the more the difficulties, the stronger the wind, and the harder the rain, the more it will grow. May the Lord have mercy on us to strengthen us that our expression may prove that we are living in spirit and in life.
Finally, these four points added together issue in peace and satisfaction, not emptiness or poverty. The living of some Christians is empty, dissatisfied, uneasy, uncomfortable, and rough, as if a hand were grasping them every day. Sometimes when they want to go to a movie, it is as if a hand grabs them from within. When they want to quarrel with others, a hand again grabs them from within. After they have quarreled with someone, they may lie on their bed, and even though the bed is restful, their inner being is unrestful because a hand is still grasping them. When they come to the meeting, they feel uneasy whether they sit or stand. When the bread is broken, everyone is joyful, but they can neither cry nor smile. It is as if they are suspended in midair. This kind of Christian does not have rest, peace, or joy because he has not touched the spirit or received life. Romans 8:6 says that when we touch the spirit, we touch life; and when life comes, peace is there.
The issue of these four conditions or expressions is peace. Peace includes satisfaction. Once we touch life, our inner being becomes living, fresh, bright, strong, and satisfied. Once we are satisfied, we have peace within. Whether we sit or stand, we have peace. Even when we are sitting in an uncomfortable place, we have peace. When we come to the Lord’s table meeting, we are all the more joyful. We are able to praise the Lord and say Amen to others’ praises. The reason we can have such peace is that we are satisfied, and the reason we are satisfied is that we are living, fresh, bright, and strong within. This is the sphere and the realm of our Christian living and the beautiful condition of our being in spirit and in life.
