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Second Corinthians 3:17-18 mentions five important matters—the Lord, the Spirit, freedom, glory, and image. After the Lord resurrected and ascended, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The Lord Jesus’ incarnation was His becoming flesh; His death and resurrection were His becoming the Spirit. Christians always speak of loving the Lord, worshipping the Lord, obeying the Lord, and following the Lord, but where is the Lord? Second Corinthians 3 shows that the Lord is the Spirit and indicates that the Lord is in our spirit. Even before the Lord’s death and resurrection, John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and that if man wants to worship Him, he must worship Him neither in Jerusalem nor Samaria but in his spirit.
What is the Lord? The Lord is the Spirit. Where is the Lord? The Lord is in our spirit. We may have the concept that the Lord is in heaven. Truly, the Lord is the Lord of heaven, but He is also the Spirit in our spirit. The Lord is wherever the Spirit is, and the way the Lord contacts man is in man’s spirit. We can use electricity as an illustration. Electricity is essential for our daily living. On the one hand, electricity is in the air; on the other hand, it is in our room, and we are able to contact it. Our unbelieving friends often ask, “Where is God? Where is the Lord? Can He be seen or touched?” Those who have experienced this know that God is Spirit, that the Lord is the Spirit, and that the Lord is in our spirit today. He is not only very near to us; He is even mingled with us as one. No matter where we are, by the Lord’s precious blood and in His name, we can touch Him as the Spirit.
When we believe into the Lord, we believe into the Lord who is in heaven. At that time we open our heart and our spirit to Him. Then we sense His presence in our spirit, in the depths of our being. This is the testimony of everyone who has been saved. As we open our heart and spirit to the Lord who is in heaven, we feel peaceful, proper, enlightened, comfortable, strengthened, and satisfied within. Every genuine believer can testify that although they believed into the Lord who is in heaven, at the moment they believed, the Lord entered into them. Moreover, they can testify that from the time that they first believed, many times throughout their Christian life they have sensed the Lord in heaven touch their inner being and cause them to feel peaceful and secure within.
The fact that we can sense the Lord within us shows that the Lord is the Spirit and that He contacts us in our spirit. After we are saved, everything of the spiritual life comes from the Lord’s moving within us. Even now when I am speaking here, apparently, I am the one speaking, but actually, there is One who is speaking within me as my content, filling me and sustaining me to speak. Otherwise, how could it be that the more I speak, the more I have to speak, and the more I speak, the more I have the Lord’s presence? If I speak from myself, then after I have given three to five messages, I will have nothing more to say. It is the same with the teachings concerning the Christian life. Some say that these teachings are too high and that they are too difficult to follow. They say, “Not only do we need to love our enemies, but as Matthew 5:39 says, we also need to turn our left cheek to those who slap us on our right cheek. Who is able to do this?” We must realize that no Christian is able to do this by himself but by the Lord who dwells within. He takes every opportunity to fill us, replace us, and work within us to enable us to live this way.
Consider, for example, the motion of an electric fan. It rotates quickly and smoothly. From the outside, it appears as if the electric fan is rotating by itself, but in actuality there is a motor within the fan that pushes the fan and causes it to rotate. The living of a genuine Christian is like this—it comes from the Lord’s “pushing” within. Andrew Murray was a brother who knew the spiritual life. He once asked, “What is prayer?” He then said that prayer is the Christ who is indwelling us praying to the Christ who is sitting on the throne. This word is very clear and to the point. Genuine prayer involves not only the person who is praying but also the Lord who dwells within him. The Lord “puts us on” and prays from within us. If we are covered by some clothing, when we move around, although others may see the clothing moving, the fact is that we are the ones who are moving within the clothing.
The Christian life is the Lord putting us on and living out from within us. Proper prayer is not simply us praying but is the Spirit in us putting us on to pray. The Spirit is the Lord Himself. Romans 8 says that although we do not know how to pray, the Spirit within us prays for us (v. 26). Similarly, we do not know how to love people or how to obey our parents. Even if we do know how to do these things a little bit, our ability is very limited. When our parents lose their temper, we are unhappy with them, but when our parents are pleased with us, we honor them. This kind of honoring is not from the Lord within. What the Lord does from within us does not depend upon how our parents treat us. The Lord would still honor them from within us regardless of how they treat us. This is something that we cannot do from ourselves. We can do it only by the Spirit motivating us from within.
We were all created by the Lord with some good elements. Thus, by ourselves we can do good things. However, our goodness is very limited and natural. Our patience, meekness, humility, goodness, and forgiveness are all limited. On the contrary, what is motivated from within us by the Spirit is unlimited. The good that we do from ourselves can be likened to using our strength to rotate the blades of an electric fan. We can cause the fan to rotate for a while, but it will stop immediately afterward. However, if electricity is transmitted to the fan, once it is switched on, the electric fan will rotate from morning to evening, even for days without stopping. Similarly, there is no limit to the Lord’s motivation in us. This motivation is the Spirit in us as our strength.
The Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself. The Lord today is not only the Lord, but He is also the Spirit. Because He is the Spirit, He can enter into man; because He is the Spirit, He cannot be limited and can be with man all the time. Regardless of the time and place, He is always within us. Second Corinthians 3:17 says that where this Spirit is, there is freedom. The Spirit is in us, but He may not move in us or have the ground in us. Once we allow Him to move in us and have the ground in us, the issue will be freedom. When we have freedom, there is nothing between us and the Lord, and the Lord and we can fellowship with one another.
We have the Spirit in us, and when this Spirit operates and moves within us, we have freedom. We do not have any bondage. This freedom removes all barriers between us and the Lord and allows us to see Him face to face. Then the Lord is expressed and there is glory. Glory is the Lord expressed. When we see the Lord face to face, the Lord appears to us. This is glory. Glory is also the Spirit. The Lord is the Spirit, and the moving of the Spirit is freedom. This freedom enables us to see the Lord, the glory. When we see and experience the Spirit, the result is glory. Moreover, this glory within us is the Lord’s image.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Paul says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This means that freedom is the Spirit. He also says that when we are free in this way, we can see the glory of the Lord face to face and that when we see the glory of the Lord in this way, we are transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory. Paul also says that we are transformed from the Lord Spirit. Therefore, this shows that these five items—freedom, glory, the Lord’s image, the Lord, and the Spirit—are all one. The Lord is the Spirit, and the Spirit is freedom, glory, and the Lord’s image. The freedom and glory within a Christian and the image expressed from a Christian are all the Holy Spirit Himself.
The freedom within us is the Holy Spirit, the glory expressed from within us is the Holy Spirit, and the image expressed out of us is also the Holy Spirit. This freedom, glory, and image are all the Holy Spirit Himself, and the Holy Spirit is the Lord. The Lord is the Spirit, and the Lord is in our spirit. When this Spirit is in us, we have freedom; when this Spirit is expressed from us, we have glory and the Lord’s image. Christians often speak of having the Lord’s image and likeness. What is the Lord’s image, and what is the Lord’s likeness? They are the Spirit. The Spirit is the Lord’s likeness, and the Spirit is the Lord’s image. Thus, when we live in the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s image will be manifested from us.
If a Christian always lives by the self and does not live in the Spirit, he will not have freedom, glory, or the Lord’s image, because the Spirit will have no ground in him. However, whenever a Christian rejects and denies the self and lives in the Spirit, inwardly, he will have freedom. Outwardly, he will have glory, and the Lord’s image will be manifested from him.
We need to see that the freedom of a Christian, the glory of a Christian, and the image expressed by a Christian, are all the Holy Spirit Himself. To repeat, the Lord Himself is the Spirit, and when this Spirit lives out of us, the Lord’s image is expressed from us. Therefore, to be transformed into the Lord’s image means that in every matter in our daily living, whether big or small, we deny ourselves and walk according to the Spirit. In all our family life, church life, and contact and interaction with others, we must deny and reject our self and live in the Spirit. Then the Lord’s image will be expressed from us. If we live in this way every day, rejecting our self and walking according to the Holy Spirit, we will be transformed day by day. Transformation comes when we lay our self down and the Spirit enters into us more and more.
Our self is the flesh, and the Holy Spirit is the Lord Himself. Whenever we live by our self, the flesh is expressed, and whenever we live according to the Holy Spirit, the Lord is expressed. The Lord is the Spirit. This Spirit is the freedom and glory within us and the Lord’s image that is expressed out of us. The more we lay our self down and live in the Spirit, the more we will be transformed unto maturity. If we do not live by the self but by the Spirit in every matter—regardless of whether we believe that something is right or wrong, good or bad, and regardless of whether we agree or disagree with it—then we will be transformed. If we do not regard our own views or the views of others and only pay attention to the feeling of the Spirit within us, then we will be those who live according to the Spirit. If we do not trust our own observations or rely on our own thinking but follow the sense in our spirit and care only for that sense, then we will be those who have abandoned the self.
As we daily reject our self, care for the sense in our spirit, and walk according to the Spirit, we will be transformed day by day. This transformation will cause us to have the same image as the Lord. The more we have the Lord’s image, the more we will become mature, and the more we become mature, the more we will have the Spirit in our soul. Transformation will cause our mind, emotion, and will, that is, our thoughts, preferences, and judgments, to be filled with the Spirit and to have the Lord’s image. As a result, our whole being will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and we will become mature. When we become mature, we will be like the prudent virgins in Matthew 25, who not only have oil in their lamps but also have their vessels filled with oil.
Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah. Thus, the lamp in Matthew 25 refers to our spirit and the vessel to our person, that is, our soul. When we become mature, not only will we have the Holy Spirit in our spirit, but even our person, our soul, will be full of the Holy Spirit. We will be fully transformed into the Lord’s image, we will be mature in life, and we will be ready to be raptured to meet the Lord. In order to reach this stage, we need to reject the self, deny the self, and walk according to the Spirit, putting the self aside in every matter and allowing the Holy Spirit to have the ground. This is to pay the price to buy oil, to prepare oil in our vessels. Only this kind of person—one who lives in the Spirit and allows the Spirit to be expressed—will be made mature and will be raptured to meet the Lord.
