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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18
In the previous chapters we have seen that the building up of the church is God’s aim and purpose, and this building is the test of our genuine spirituality. Moreover, the building is by the growth in life and the transformation of the soul. In this chapter we will consider how the building up of the church is absolutely in our human spirit. The human spirit is mentioned in each of the six chapters of Ephesians, which is a book on the church. This proves that our spirit is strongly related to the church life. In order to have a practical church life, we must know our human spirit, and we must be in our spirit.
Ephesians 1:17 says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” The spirit mentioned here is not the Holy Spirit; it is our human spirit. In order to practice the church life, we need an enlightened human spirit, one that is full of wisdom and revelation. Then we will be able to see the spiritual and heavenly things not in the mind, in the soul, or even in the heart but in the spirit.
Verse 22 of chapter 2 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” Again, spirit here is not the Holy Spirit. It is not logical to say that the Holy Spirit is the dwelling place of God. The Spirit is not the dwelling place but the Dweller. The habitation, the dwelling place, of God is in our spirit.
Verse 5 of chapter 3 says, “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit.” Spirit here refers to the human spirit of the apostles and prophets, a spirit regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. It can be considered the mingled spirit, the human spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. Such a mingled spirit is the means by which the New Testament revelation concerning Christ and the church is revealed to the apostles and prophets. We need the same kind of spirit to see such a revelation.
Verse 16 says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” The inner man is our regenerated human spirit. Our regenerated spirit needs to be strengthened. The issue of the strengthening of our spirit is that Christ makes His home in our heart. The heart is mainly the soul, being composed of the mind, emotion, will, and the conscience. When our spirit is strengthened, Christ takes over our soul to make it His home. Not only our spirit but also our soul becomes His dwelling place.
Christ came into our spirit as only a small seed. Therefore, our spirit is somewhat weak. However, every descendant of Adam, the unbelievers and the believers alike, is strong in his mind. The spirit of the unbelievers is deadened. The spirit of the believers has been made alive, renewed, and regenerated, but it is still too weak. It is difficult to practice the church life if our spirit remains weak. That is why the apostle Paul, after he released the vision of the church, bowed his knees to pray specifically that we may be strengthened into our inner man, that we would be strong in our spirit, not in our mind. When we are strong in our spirit, Christ who is in our spirit has the ground and the opportunity to spread from our spirit to take over our mind, emotion, and will. Then our whole being with all our inward parts—mind, emotion, will, and conscience—will be possessed by Christ. Christ will make His home in our heart and occupy our entire inner being.
Verse 19 concludes, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” Because all the fullness of God dwells in Christ (Col. 2:9), and Christ possesses our whole being to make His home there, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God. This means that we will be fully mingled with God as life. This experience in the spirit is necessary for us to practice the church life.
Ephesians 4:23 says, “That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” When our spirit is strengthened, Christ spreads from our spirit into our mind. At that point the spirit subdues and possesses the mind, and the mind comes under the rule, the control, of the spirit. In this way the spirit becomes the spirit of the mind. Verse 23 is between verses 22 and 24. Verse 22 speaks of putting off the old man, and verse 24 of putting on the new man. The secret to putting off the old man and putting on the new man is to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
Verse 18 of chapter 5 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit.” According to the Greek text, there is no article before spirit. Strictly speaking, this verse speaks of being filled not with the Spirit but in our human spirit. Verse 18 presents a contrast between the body and the spirit. To be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body, but to be filled in spirit is to be filled with Christ, who is all that God is, the fullness of God. We should no longer be filled in our body by drinking wine. Instead, we need to drink Christ as the fullness of God for the filling of our spirit. We all need to be filled in spirit.
Verse 18 of chapter 6 says, “Praying at every time in spirit.” Again, the Greek text has no article before spirit, indicating the human spirit. We need to pray at every time not only with words but in our spirit. Our prayer must be something of God and Christ. To pray merely with words from the mind is to pray by ourselves, which is not a genuine prayer. However, when we pray in the spirit, we have a genuine prayer, and Christ prays within us.
According to the six chapters of Ephesians, our spirit must be enlightened to be a spirit of wisdom and revelation; this is the beginning of God’s dwelling within us. Our spirit must also be strengthened so that Christ may gain more ground to take possession of our whole being. This spirit becomes the spirit of our mind to take over, subdue, and control our mind. Then we need to be filled in our spirit and pray at every time in our spirit. If we have such a spirit, we will have no problems with the building up of the church. If a husband and wife have a spirit that is always enlightened by God and full of wisdom and revelation, a spirit that is the dwelling place of God, a strengthened spirit that always gives Christ more ground within them, a spirit that takes possession of their mind, a spirit that is filled, and a praying spirit, they will have no problems in their marriage life. All the problems among the married couples come only when they are out of their spirit.
When I was younger, brothers and sisters would come to me with the troubles of their marriage life and family life. At that time I always told them to open their Bible to Ephesians 5:24-25. They already received the teaching from this passage on their wedding day, but I would try my best to remind them of it. This was foolish. Every time I did this, I failed myself and I failed them. I failed in this way for a period of many years. Eventually, I learned that such teaching does not work. There is another verse in Ephesians 5, verse 18, which says, “Be filled in spirit.” Their problem was that they were out of the spirit. If they would simply return to the spirit, open to the Lord, and speak to Him, their problems would be solved.
A marriage life is a related life. Many times a husband does not tell his wife before he goes somewhere. Sometimes wives also act independently. This is because they have not realized that after being married, they now have a related life. After getting married, a husband must not only tell his dear wife where he is going, but he may also need to ask her permission. In order to be a good husband or wife, one must always go to his or her spouse before doing anything. To keep the relatedness in this way removes all the misunderstandings. It causes the family life to be full of joy and the husbands and wives to be happy with each other.
In the same way, the church life is also a related life, an enlarged marriage life and family life. Therefore, we all need to learn to be related. However, whenever we are in our mind, we are separated, not related. Relatedness can be realized only in our spirit. This is not mere knowledge; it is something practical for the building up of the church. Sometimes we may say, “Let us come together and thoroughly discuss the situation.” This may help in a small way, but we need to be careful. The more we talk in the mind, the more problems we have. When we have a problem, the secret is to say, “Brothers, let us stop our talking and pray a little.” We need to stop the exercise of the mind and pray. To pray is to come back to the spirit and exercise the spirit. After everyone prays, we are restored to oneness. Whenever we come back to the spirit, we are immediately in the oneness.
We may again illustrate this with the marriage life. Whenever husbands and wives are not happy with each other, they are in the soul, either the mind or the emotions. The problem is never with the spirit. The best way to help the situation is for them to turn from the mind and the emotions to the spirit. If they turn to the spirit, they will be happy. When a husband is in his mind or emotion, he looks at his wife from the angle of the mind and emotion. When you look at my face from the front, you can see my eyes, but when you look from behind, you see only my hair. In the same principle, if a brother looks at his wife from the point of view of his mind, he will quickly become unhappy with her. However, when he turns to his spirit, he looks at his wife from another angle. His view is different because his angle has changed.
Many times we have problems with the dear ones in the church life simply because we exercise our mind too much. The more we exercise our mind to look at the brothers and sisters, the more problems we have. We need to turn to our spirit whenever we have any problem with the brothers and sisters. We should say, “Lord, help me not to look at my brothers and sisters in the mind. Help me to turn to the spirit and consider the saints from my spirit.” Then we will see from another angle. The situation will still be the same, but our view will be changed. The reason it is easy to be angry with people is that we are too much in the emotion. If we turn to the spirit, however, our angle will change, so our view of the saints will be different.
Throughout all the years in the past and in all the places I have been, I have learned this lesson. We all have a heart for the Lord, we have seen the vision of the church, and we desire to practice the genuine church life. However, in our real situation there are still troubles. The unique source of all the troubles is that often we are not in the spirit. When we are in the spirit, even when there are problems in the church, we are not bothered, and we do not get involved with them. When we are not in the spirit, though, we only add more fuel to the fire.
I believe that this is what was in the spirit of Paul as he wrote the book of Ephesians. As he wrote this Epistle, he was clear that the church life can be realized only in spirit and in love. As we have seen, the phrase in spirit is mentioned several times in this book. Paul also uses another phrase, in love (3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2). We should bring all the problems to the Lord and turn to our spirit. Then we will view the problems from the spirit. It is not that the situation will change. The situation will be the same, but our view will be different, because we will look at it from another angle. Moreover, we will be kept from involvement in the problems. We will not need others to rescue us from the problems, but we will be in the position to rescue others.
If we see a problem between brothers or sisters, we may have the good intention to help the situation. However, we need to realize that if we are in the soul and not in the spirit, there is the danger that we may get involved with the problem. Originally the problem may have involved only two persons, but if we get involved in our soul, more people will be added to the problem. We will only add more fuel to the fire. As long as we are in our soul, we will only get involved negatively. It is in this way that Satan, the subtle one, takes the ground to increase and enlarge the problems in the church. Rather, we should be quiet and cool down our mind and emotion. Then we must go to the Lord in the spirit to wait on Him in prayer. We should not exercise the mind or the emotion; we should simply contact the Lord in the spirit for a certain amount of time. Then we will see the difference. The situation may not change, but our view will change, and with this view we will be kept away from negative involvement. We will be in a position to help and even rescue the situation. This comes by our not being in the soul but being in the spirit.
If we look at matters with our mind, we will have a certain point of view, but if we look at them with a spirit of wisdom and revelation, we will have a different view. We always need to turn to the spirit, and we need to have a spirit that is full of wisdom and revelation. In addition, we need our spirit to be strengthened. We must be stronger in the spirit than in the mind. We also need our mind to be subdued under the control of the spirit. For our spirit to be the spirit of our mind is genuine transformation.
If we consider a certain brother with our mind, we may be disgusted with him and think he is hopeless. We must learn the lesson to realize that our poor, troublesome mind needs to be subdued by our spirit. We need to turn to the spirit, look to the Lord, and have our mind subdued by the spirit. If we do this, then we will look at the same brother from our spirit and be full of hope. The brother may still be the same, and his situation may not have changed, but our view will change because we will look at him from our spirit. This is not a mere doctrine. It is something we can put into practice in our daily life. Sometimes after exercising my mind I have asked the Lord, “Be merciful to me. I do not want to be in the outer court or even in the Holy Place. I want to be in the Holy of Holies in Your presence.” By being in the presence of the Lord in this way, my view was changed.
In Ephesians 1 our spirit is enlightened and filled with wisdom and revelation. In chapter 3 our spirit is strengthened, and in chapter 4 our spirit subdues and takes over our mind. Then in chapter 5 our spirit is filled with Christ, who is the fullness of God. We are filled not with something for the body, but even the more we are filled with God in our spirit. Finally in chapter 6 we pray at every time in spirit. If we are in the mind, it is impossible to pray at every time. The more a brother considers his wife with his mind, the more he is unable to pray. This kind of exercise of the mind keeps him from praying. However, if he turns back to the spirit and considers things from the spirit, he will pray at every time in spirit with all prayer and petition.
I am so grateful for the Word of God. Ephesians presents a proper order, a sequence. First, our spirit is enlightened to be a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Then it is strengthened, and it brings the mind under its control. Following this it is filled with Christ as the fullness of God, and it becomes a praying spirit. If this is our condition, we will have no problems. The real building up of the church can be realized only in this kind of spirit. Eventually, we will be the dwelling place of God in spirit.
How much we always need to turn to our spirit! We should not receive this merely as a doctrine. We need to practice this. Whenever there is a problem in the church with the brothers and sisters, we must practice to turn to the spirit. We should never try to reason. Reasoning gets us nowhere. Likewise, we should not try to debate, for debating only brings in more confusion. Rather, we must learn to quiet our mind, cool down our emotion, and turn to our spirit to stay in the presence of the Lord for a certain time concerning all the problems before us. Then, to be sure, we will have another view of the situation, and we will be kept from negative involvements. We will be in a position to rescue those who are involved and be a real help to the situation.
On the positive side, we will be very related to all the others who are also in the spirit. Our real relatedness is in the spirit, and this relatedness in the spirit is the true building up of the Body. Sometimes we see in the church that certain ones are too related to one another. This is not the genuine relatedness but something natural. It simply indicates that the persons involved are not in the spirit. If we are in the spirit, we will not be overly related. Rather, we will be related to a proper extent, because whenever we are in the spirit, there is always the proper restriction. We will realize that we can love and deal with a brother only to a certain extent.
In our spirit there is both a release and a restriction. In this way we are kept from being overly related with anyone. If we do not have this balance in the spirit, we will eventually have divided and divisive parties among the brothers. One group of brothers will be overly related; another group will be related among themselves but not to the first group. We all must reject both being unrelated and being overly related. We must have a balanced relatedness. Whether or not we like a certain brother, we need to have the proper relatedness in our spirit, and at the same time this relatedness must be restricted by the spirit. Then we will have the proper and genuine relatedness with all the brothers. Whether or not we like someone, we still need to keep the balanced relatedness in our spirit. Then whether we are happy with the brothers or not happy, there will be no parties. Rather, the relatedness among us will always be balanced. Through this kind of balanced relatedness we will have the genuine building up of the Body of Christ.
