Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10
The speaking of Job, of his three friends, and of Elihu was altogether lacking in the exercise of the spirit to contact God. They did not pray, and they did not have fellowship with God or with one another in spirit. Although they were godly men, they did not come together to pray by exercising their spirit to touch God. Instead of exercising their spirit, they exercised their mind to compose poetry and to make a display of their knowledge. In this matter, Elihu followed the example of the older ones and spoke in the same way. Therefore, he said, "Hear me;/I too will declare what I know" (32:10). As we have pointed out, Elihu was a person who was full of the knowledge of good and evil. He was not a person in the spirit.
In the book of Revelation, at the very beginning, John said, "I was in spirit on the Lord's Day" (1:10). Here the word spirit refers not to the Spirit of God but to the human spirit as the organ for us to realize and respond to God's move. Only spirit (our spirit) can respond to Spirit (God's Spirit).
At that time John had been exiled to the island of Patmos. John was alone, having no church, church meetings, or fellowship with the saints. Nevertheless, John was in spirit. This means that John was a person who remained in his spirit. Because he was in his spirit, he was in reality a member of the Body of Christ and a part of the new man.
While he was in spirit, John saw a number of visions, resulting in his writing the twenty-two chapters of the book of Revelation. This book is composed of four major visions: (1) the vision of the churches (chs. 1—3); (2) the vision of the destiny of the world (chs. 4—16); (3) the vision of Babylon the Great (chs. 17—18); and (4) the vision of the New Jerusalem (chs. 21—22). John was in his spirit when he saw these four visions (1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10). We too need to be in our spirit to see the visions in this book. It is not merely a matter of mental understanding in our mind but of spiritual realization in our spirit.
First, John saw the lampstands as the symbols of the churches (1:12, 20), indicating God's economy concerning the Body of Christ. Then in this book there are the seven epistles to the seven churches (chs. 2—3). In these seven epistles we have the speaking of the Spirit to the seven churches. This is followed by the scene in the heavens (chs. 4—5), the seven seals (6:1—8:5), the seven trumpets (8:6—11:19), and the seven bowls (15:1—16:21). John also saw the destruction of religious Babylon (17:1-18), the destruction of material, commercial Babylon (18:1-24), the marriage of the Lamb (19:5-10), Christ's defeating and destroying of Antichrist (19:11-21), the binding of Satan (20:1-3), the millennial kingdom (20:4-6), and the judgment of the great white throne (20:11-15). Eventually, John saw the new heaven and the new earth with the ultimate consummation of God's economy, the New Jerusalem (21:1-27). Such visions came to him because he was in spirit.
When I was young, I was very interested in studying the prophecies in the book of Revelation. Today I have less interest in the prophecies but more interest in being enlightened by considering the spiritual visions in this book, in particular the visions of the seven lampstands and of the New Jerusalem. At the beginning of Revelation, we have the local churches as the golden lampstands; at the end, we have the New Jerusalem as the unique, universal golden lampstand in eternity (21:10-11, 18b, 23). Seeing the visions in Revelation will help you to be a person in the spirit.
Many readers of Revelation fail to see that the seer of the visions in this book was one who was doing nothing but remaining in the human spirit. On the Lord's Day John was in his spirit. We all need to learn to be imprisoned in our spirit and not to get out of our spirit. We must be persons who are in our spirit all the time. If we are this kind of person, others will not be able to understand us because in spirit we are moving as our God is moving in us.
When we turn to our spirit and get into our spirit, even while we are driving, we may sing, praise, or rejoice. We may also cry, weeping as we pray, "Lord, look at the situation of Your Body." We have all tasted this to some extent. We must be perfected and built up to be such persons. There is no other way to be a lover of God, to be a seeker of Christ, or to be an overcomer than to be in spirit.
If you are a person in the spirit, then you will be in the spirit to meet God, to see God, and to stay with God. And this God is the consummated Spirit, the reality of Christ. Furthermore, when you have Christ, you have the church because Christ is the Head of the new man and the church is the Body. Then you will enjoy the church, the Body, as well as Christ, the Head.
When you are in the spirit, the matters of the local church will come to you, and this will cause you to pray for the situation of the church. These prayers are the real, prevailing prayers because you pray in your spirit and because, in spirit, you are moving in the Lord's move. Your prayer is the Lord's move in you. You and the Lord, the Lord and you, are two moving together and praying together. This is quite sweet and is very different from the prayer that is out of responsibility, obligation, or some kind of duty. This is a prayer in sweet fellowship with the Lord.
The way to be such a person is very simple — the way is to be in our spirit. I very much like the phrase "in spirit on the Lord's Day." First, John was in his spirit, and then he heard the voice, a "loud voice like a trumpet." When he turned to see the voice that spoke with him, he saw the vision of the seven golden lampstands (Rev. 1:12). We all need to learn of John to be in our spirit to see the vision and to enjoy the Lord, to enjoy the Body, and to enjoy the speaking of the Spirit to the churches.
