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Scripture Reading: Acts 17:16; 18:25; 19:21; 20:22; Rom. 1:9; 2:29; 7:6; 12:11; 1 Cor. 2:4; 4:21; 5:3-4; 2 Cor. 2:13; Gal. 6:1; Col. 2:5; 2 Tim. 1:7
In a number of verses the apostle Paul tells us that he served God in his spirit, that he exercised his spirit in many different ways in the service of the Lord. By pray-reading all these verses, we receive a deep impression concerning the way the apostle Paul served the Lord. In Paul’s record of how he served the God of his forefathers in the Jewish religion before his conversion, he did not mention anything about his spirit in relation to serving God (see Acts 22:2-4; 26:4-5, 9-11; Phil. 3:5-6; Acts 9:1-2). However, there are many verses telling us by what way, or by what organ, he served God after he met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. It is very clear that the apostle Paul served God in his spirit.
In these chapters we are considering the matter of how to serve. The first point we have covered is that we need to serve in the Body. In this chapter we come to the second point, that we need to serve in our spirit. We are speaking here of our human spirit. We may consider that serving in spirit means serving only in the Holy Spirit, and we may altogether neglect the matter of serving God in our human spirit. There are many verses in the New Testament that make the matter of the human spirit clear.
As Christians we all know that to serve God we need the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit there is no possibility that we could serve God. However, we need a vision, a revelation, that to serve God it is necessary for us, in addition, to know our human spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power for us to serve God, and the human spirit is the organ, the means, the instrument, for us to receive and contain the power and to apply it.
The way to use our human spirit can be illustrated by the application of electricity. First of all, it is necessary for electricity to be installed in a building. After the electricity has been installed, what should we do when we need to use it? It would be foolish to call the power plant and ask them to send some electricity. What we need to do is simply use the switch in order to apply the electricity. If we realize that electricity has been installed already, we simply need to go to the place where there is a means for us to apply the electricity. When we turn on the switch, immediately the electricity works for us.
We may compare ourselves to the building, and the Holy Spirit to the heavenly, divine electricity. This spiritual “electricity” is the Lord Himself, and He has already been installed in us. We need to realize that we already have the heavenly electricity installed in us. Hallelujah, we do have this installation! We received this wonderful installation of Christ in us when we accepted Him. Now we know that we need the Holy Spirit, but we may not be so clear as to the way to apply the Holy Spirit who has been installed in us as the heavenly electricity. There is no need for us to fast and pray for three days and nights without sleeping. There is no need for us to pray with a loud voice in a zealous way, with tears flowing down. The heavenly electricity has already been installed into us, and there is a switch within us. When we need electricity for any purpose, we simply go to the proper place to touch the proper organ, the means to apply the electricity. We touch the switch just a little bit, and the electricity is turned on. It is so simple. This is the wonderful secret of applying the heavenly electricity.
The crucial question then is where to find the switch, where to find the organ, the means to apply the heavenly electricity. It is clear that neither our eyes, our mind, nor even our heart is the proper organ. God created the human spirit as the specific organ for this purpose. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit,” in the human spirit (John 4:24). Some have opposed our emphasis on the human spirit because they pay their attention only to the Holy Spirit, and they do not recognize the difference between the spirit, the mind, and the heart.
There is no way to tell people how to be regenerated if we do not recognize that God has created our human spirit to contact Him. Surely an unsaved one could not be regenerated in any other part of his being, in his mind or in his heart. Regeneration is a matter in the human spirit. In John 3:6 we are told, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In this verse there are two spirits, the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. That which is born of the Holy Spirit is the human spirit. The human spirit is a specific organ for us to have contact with God, who is the Spirit. Our human spirit is the switch, the proper organ or the means to apply the heavenly electricity that has been installed in us.
Today we know where to find the switch, and we know how to use the switch, how to use our human spirit to contact the Lord, who is the divine electricity. How pitiful it would be if we could not find the switch and did not know how to touch it, how to use it to contact the Lord! The switch is the human spirit. When we speak of handling the switch, using the switch, or touching the switch, we are talking about the exercise of our human spirit. It is so simple. If I could plant a deep impression within you concerning this one matter of the exercise of our human spirit, there would be no need for me to speak any further. How crucial it is for us to learn how to exercise our human spirit, to know how to use the switch!
Not only was the apostle Paul one who could say that he served God in his spirit, but he was also one who could be provoked in his human spirit when he saw the whole city of Athens full of idols (Acts 17:16). He was not provoked in his emotion, or in his zealous heart, but in his spirit. The pronoun his definitely indicates that it was Paul’s spirit that was provoked. It was not the Holy Spirit within Paul that was provoked by the idols, but it was Paul’s human spirit, regenerated and indwelt by God the Spirit. Such a human spirit was provoked at the sight of the idolatry in Athens.
We may not know how to be angry in the human spirit. There is a big difference between being angry in the emotion and being angry in the spirit. We know how to be angry in the emotion, but we may not know how to be angry in the spirit. Suppose a brother looks at me with a long face. This may offend me and cause me to be unhappy with him. My unhappiness is surely in my emotion. Then suppose he rebukes me a little bit. His rebuke may cause me to be angry with him. My anger is also in my emotion. Then suppose sometime later I see a weakness of this same brother exposed, and, in a sense, I am somewhat happy to see that brother’s failure because he is the one who rebuked me, offended me, and caused me to be angry with him. My pleasure in condemning the brother for his weakness is likewise in my emotion. All these feelings—my unhappiness, my anger, and my happiness—are in my emotion. On the other hand, suppose you cause me to be unhappy, and you even rebuke me. Yet, when I see you as a dear brother in a situation of failure, deep within my spirit I feel genuinely sorry for you. Such a feeling must be in my spirit. Although you have offended me, I am deeply pained when I see your weakness. There is a big difference between the feelings in the emotion and the feelings in the spirit.
Many times in the church life our feelings are those in the emotion, not those in the spirit. When something fits in with our likes or dislikes, we have a certain feeling in our emotion, and we just give up our spirit. Even when we come to the meeting, it may be as if we left our spirit at home. Our presence is in the meeting, but all of our feeling is in the emotion, not in the spirit. We all need to learn to exercise our spirit to the extent that we even know how to be provoked in our spirit, to be angry in our spirit. We could never be offended if we learn how to remain in our spirit. We should have no anger except the anger that comes from the exercise of the spirit.
If you are a person who is always in your emotion, you will be offended by people from every direction. Sometimes I offend people by not speaking to them, and sometimes I offend people just by speaking to them. Eventually, I do not know whether to speak or not to speak, because others are so easily offended. It is so easy to offend anyone who is in the emotion. If you are naturally so much in the emotion, you will be very easily offended. However, I would tell the brothers, and the sisters even more, that if you are in the spirit, no one could ever offend you. Even if someone rebukes you, instead of being offended, you will praise the Lord and receive it as something for your good, something measured to you by God on the throne.
In any kind of human society, and in the church as well, it is so easy to have gossip. As a word of gossip spreads more and more, it will always be changed a little bit. Either some part will be left out, or something will be added. This is always the case when a rumor is spread. For example, one person may tell another that a certain thing will probably happen soon. The second person may repeat the story but omit the word probably. The third person may repeat the same story as if it had already happened.
Gossip, rumors, and the twisting of words are all means of spreading death. Even among the brothers and sisters it is quite possible to have problems of this kind. As an example of the twisting of words spreading death, in some of the meetings I told people that to pray in the Lord’s name should be a reality, not a formality. Simply to add the words In the name of the Lord Jesus at the end of a prayer may be a formality. My words were twisted, and I was later accused in writing of saying that there is no need to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. I never told people that there is no need to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, but I did tell them not to make this a formality. Actually, I myself many times do say in my prayer, “In the precious name of the Lord.” This is an example of the way rumors twist words and spread death.
If we learn to be in our spirit, we will be on guard against death-spreading rumors. From years of experience and from suffering, I have learned one secret to avoid these situations. I do not like to pass on a word from one person to another. Rather, I have learned to advise the brothers and sisters to write down their messages and mail them to one another instead of depending on me to pass on a word. I do not consider myself trustworthy, for it is easy for me to forget, and, even if I remember, I may leave out some point, or I might even add something to their word. This would damage their message. If we never pass on words for others, we will be spared that kind of suffering in the church life.
If we are in the spirit, many things will be terminated, and there could never be deadness or deadening in the church life through gossip. In the natural life we like to know things about others and their affairs. The result is gossip. If we are in the spirit, we will be so simple. We would not care to know things about others, and gossip would be terminated. We would prefer not to know anything about others unless it is necessary because the Lord has burdened us for them.
We need to spend time reading and pray-reading all the verses related to the way the apostle Paul served God in his spirit. Paul had been a person zealous in serving the God of his forefathers, but he was zealous in his natural emotion. By Acts 17 he was no longer zealous in his natural emotion, but he was burning in his regenerated spirit and burdened in his spirit.
Acts 19:21 tells us that “Paul purposed in his spirit to...go to Jerusalem,” and Acts 20:22 says that he was going to Jerusalem “bound in the spirit.” Some versions capitalize the word spirit in these two verses, because in Greek there is the definite article—the Spirit. It is rather hard for anyone to say whether the spirit mentioned in Acts 19:21 and 20:22 is the Holy Spirit or Paul’s human spirit, because by that time the Holy Spirit was one with Paul’s spirit. Paul the apostle was a person with a mingled spirit. According to 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Who can say whether this one spirit is human or divine?
We need to see that all that the Father is, is now in the Son, and all that the Son has obtained, attained, and accomplished, with all that the Father is, is now in the Holy Spirit (John 16:14-15). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit as the heavenly electricity has been installed in our spirit. This is too wonderful, too marvelous! We are joined to the Lord as the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, we are one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). Whenever we exercise our spirit even a little bit, the all-inclusive divine Spirit with all the fullness, the riches, of the Trinity of the Godhead, moves right away within our spirit. All that is in this heavenly electricity moves and works in us. It is not a small matter to switch on. When you switch on, you get every element of the electricity. If you exercise your spirit, all the riches, all the fullness, of the Trinity of the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are available to you.
We have seen clearly that the Body of Christ is absolutely in the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit is absolutely in our spirit. Therefore, the Body of Christ is altogether a matter in our spirit. The book of Ephesians confirms this. Ephesians 1 tells us that we can see the church only in our spirit (vv. 17-23). Ephesians 2 tells us that the building of the church, the Body, both universally and locally, is in our spirit (vv. 20-22). Then chapter 3 tells us that we need to be strengthened into our inner man, the regenerated human spirit (v. 16). Chapter 4 tells us that we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23), and chapter 5 tells us that we need to be filled in our human spirit unto all the fullness of God (v. 18, with 3:19). Finally, chapter 6 tells us that we need to pray as the church, as the Body, in spirit (v. 18). From all these verses we can see that the Body is altogether a matter in our spirit.
Whenever we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we touch the Body, because the Body is in our spirit. When we exercise our spirit and touch the Body, not only do we have power, but we have the authority, because the Body is identified with the enthroned Head, with the lordship, with the headship, and with the kingship. The authority of the Head is with the Body. When you exercise your spirit, you touch the Body, and when you touch the Body, you are in the authority of the Head. In doing any business, there is the need of capital to work with. We may say that the authority of the Head is the capital for our service. The capital that we need for service is the authority of the Head, and the way for us to touch this authority is by exercising our spirit. We touch the power in electricity by switching on. In a similar way, we touch the authority of the Head when we exercise our spirit. This is not a small thing.
Many dear saints are weak because they damage their spirit. Then, speaking in a practical way, they are out of the reality of the Body. When you are out of the reality of the Body, you are powerless. You have no power because you lose the practical connection with the Body. Your spirit can be damaged by only a little bit of gossiping, a little bit of murmuring, or a little bit of dissatisfaction. Even a very thin piece of paper that gets into a switch can cut off the flow of electricity. When this happens, the power is lost. A little bit of murmuring, a little bit of gossiping, or a little bit of dissatisfaction with certain brothers is enough to cut you off from the flow of the divine electricity.
You may think that a little gossip or a little criticism of others is not very important. But just as a piece of very thin paper can cut off the flow of electricity, only a little gossip or criticism is sufficient to cause you to be out of the spirit and, therefore, out of the reality of the Body. From experience I know too well that a very small thing in my spirit disconnects me from the flow of the heavenly electricity. Then I am through, I am finished, as far as the power and authority are concerned. There is no power and no authority, because the power and the authority of the Head are in the Body, not in me individually, and the Body is absolutely a matter in the spirit. Therefore, all the time we need to keep ourselves in our spirit connected to the Holy Spirit. Then we will have not only the power but also the authority of the Head. When we turn to the spirit, we get into the reality of the Body, and in the Body we are empowered and authorized by the Head.
The main purpose of the spiritual service is to minister life to others, to minister Christ to others. This Christ as life is in our spirit. If we do not know how to exercise our spirit, how to apply our spirit, it is impossible for us to minister Christ as life to others. We may not minister life but instead minister knowledge, teaching in letters, because we do not know how to exercise our spirit and because we are not in our spirit. In that kind of ministry there is no life and no ministry of the living Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 2:4 Paul says that when he came to the Corinthians, he did not use persuasive words, but he came to them with the demonstration of the Spirit. “My speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Persuasive words of wisdom issue from the human mind and come out of the mouth; the demonstration of the Spirit comes forth from the human spirit. Paul’s words came from his spirit with the release of the Spirit and therefore with power. The Corinthians may have thought that Paul was a fool, but there was a demonstration of the Spirit. Where there is the demonstration of the Spirit, there is power. It is not a matter of speaking persuasive words of wisdom by exercising our mind but a matter of exercising our spirit to release Christ as life and minister Him to others.
In the church meetings we all need to behave ourselves by the demonstration of our spirit. We should not care for eloquent speaking. We all need to demonstrate our spirit. Instead of eloquence we need utterance. Utterance is different from eloquence. Eloquence is something natural. Some are born with eloquence, whereas others lack eloquence and are awkward in speaking. Yet they may know how to demonstrate the spirit and have the utterance. Utterance comes from the spirit.
Our one need is to learn how to exercise our human spirit. Christ has accomplished everything, He has obtained everything, and He has attained to the headship. Everything is completed, everything is ready, and, thank Him, everything has been installed in us. From my experience I can tell you that what we need is to learn how to exercise our spirit.
Today many Christians talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For more than forty years I have been paying attention to this matter with different groups of believers who were trying in different ways to realize the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now I can tell you the good news that the baptism of the Holy Spirit has been accomplished absolutely on the Body already, just as the crucifixion of Christ has already been finished. On the cross at the very end the Lord Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Crucifixion to accomplish redemption is finished. Therefore, redemption today is an accomplished fact. There is no need for you to do anything or for Him to do anything. You simply need to take it. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the same in principle. The ascended Head has baptized the whole church, His Body, into the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). This baptism is an accomplished fact, and it has been accomplished on the Body.
On the day of Pentecost the Head baptized the Jewish part of His Body directly into Himself (Acts 2:4). Then in the house of Cornelius the ascended Head baptized the Gentile part of His Body into Himself (10:44-47). Because the Head baptized the Body directly on these two occasions, there was no laying on of hands. By these two steps, with these two portions of His baptizing, the ascended Head has accomplished the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the Body already. From that point on, whoever is saved and joined to the Body enjoys the baptism on the Body. With some particular cases there is the need for the laying on of hands, as in Acts 8:14-17; 9:17 and 19:2-7. To lay hands on someone is to represent the Body in accepting the new member and to transmit what is upon the Body to the new member. As we have seen, the Body is in our spirit. Therefore, whenever we turn to our spirit, we are entitled to claim the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is ours. The one thing we all need to learn is to exercise our spirit.
We have covered two main aspects of the exercise of the spirit. Number one, to touch the Body and to be authorized in the Body, you need to turn yourself to the spirit. Then, number two, to minister Christ as life to others, you need to turn to the spirit. On this point we need some further illustrations.
Suppose I have the burden to visit a certain brother. As a rule, before I go I would pray and consider what I should do and what I should say to him. Then I would carry out what I had decided. But I say emphatically that this is wrong. Eventually, I learned the lesson simply to pray, “Lord, I am going to see my brother. Lord, You go with me. I don’t know what to say, but You know.” Many times in the past I made a decision to say a certain thing to a brother, but when I was with him, there was something different in my spirit. If I had carried out what I had decided, I would have been in the mind, not in the spirit. We should not do this. We need to be available to the Lord’s present leading, flexible toward Him. Many times before I went to see a brother, I had a burden to say a certain thing, but when the time came, I said nothing. I was simply there—that is all. The brother would ask me why I had come, and I would tell him that I had come simply to be there with him. Eventually, this proved to be the best way. We all need to learn to be in the spirit. Sometimes I had to change what I was going to say in the middle of a sentence. After I had uttered the subject, the predicate had to be changed from what I had intended. Without such a change I would have done some damage. But by that change, some profit came instead of damage. We all need to learn to be living in our spirit, flexible in the spirit, with nothing decided, nothing settled, nothing fixed. Here is a lesson for us to learn. If we exercise our spirit, we are in the Body, we are entitled, we are authorized with the Body, and we have something of Christ to minister to others as life because we are in the spirit with Him. He as the life-giving Spirit is now in our spirit. If we exercise our spirit, He will come out along with our exercise of our spirit, and that will be life ministered to others.
On the negative side, we all know that in the Bible Satan, the evil one, is likened to a serpent. In Genesis 3 God destined the serpent to eat dust. Dust is the food of the serpent. We all need to realize that our natural life is a life of dust. Our natural life, our soulish life, is very dusty, very earthy, and it is good to be food for the serpent, the devil. Whenever you behave yourself in the soul, you are qualified to be food for the serpent. You should not think that a little bit of gossip is a small thing. Just a little gossip makes you good food for the serpent. First Peter 5:8 tells us that the devil, as a roaring lion, is walking about on this earth, seeking someone to devour. However, he is not foolish. On the contrary, he is very clever, and he is subtle. He can get into you without you realizing what he has done, just as germs that you cannot see can come in and make you sick. Before you know that the serpent is there, he has eaten you already.
The only way to escape being eaten by the serpent is to turn yourself to the spirit. Whenever you live, behave, act, move, do things, and say things in the soul, you are good for the serpent to eat. This is why there are many members in the Body, but only a few function. Many are food for the serpent. The little foxes are so cunning, so subtle! Some brothers and sisters are offended just by a long face. Others are offended by a little instruction or a little fellowship that is not according to their liking. Then the offended ones try to vindicate themselves by going to this one and that one to maintain that they are right and others are wrong. It might be that they are right, but only right to become food for the enemy. Once you get even a little bit involved in this kind of thing, you are deadened within as a result.
From experience we have learned that the problem today in the practice of the church life is absolutely a matter with us. If you would keep yourself in your spirit all the time, you would never be good for food to feed the serpent. May the Lord be merciful to us. No matter how long others’ faces may be toward me, no matter what kind of instruction or fellowship may come to me, I would be in the spirit. As long as I am in the spirit, I am no longer food to feed the serpent.
Only the earthy things, only the dusty things, are the food of the serpent. The fleshly life and the soulish life are good to be the food of the serpent. This is why in the church life there is no possibility that we would be living in the spirit and yet have complaining, self-vindication, and self-justification. All of us know that whenever we say something for ourselves, whenever we vindicate something of our own, we are through with the spirit. It might be that we are right according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but we are good to be food for the serpent. We spread death to others, and we ourselves are swallowed up by the enemy. Then we are through. You may come to the meeting and may still partake of the service, but there is no life and no ministry of life. There is no spirit, and there is nothing living. Life cannot be imitated; it cannot be copied. If you stand up to speak without life, others will sense the death and the deadening because you are not in the spirit but in the soul. To practice the church life is absolutely a matter in the human spirit.
As long as we are in the human spirit, we are in the Body. We are authorized, not only empowered, but authorized in the Body, and we are one with Christ to minister Him as life. We are delivered from the subtlety of the little serpent. His eating could never damage us because we are in the spirit.
