learning to live our human life by the divine life in our mingled spirit (Romans 8)

The Lord’s recovery is not only the recovery of the truth in the Bible, of the Christian practices, the church life, etc, but it is also the recovery of our daily life with our daily living. This week we are getting into Romans chapter 8, which talks about our living, touching the center of the universe and being the focus of the entire Bible. The Lord’s recovery should not be characterized only by the high truth we speak and have, the wonderful Christian practices and church life, but also by our testimony in our daily living, in which we live the divine life in the human life daily.

Romans 8 is the focus of the entire Bible

In the beginning, the Bible speaks about God creating man in His image so that God would get into man to be one with Him in order that man may express and represent God. At the end of the Bible we see a consummation – God and man being mingled together as the New Jerusalem, the corporate expression of the Triune God! Between these two ends we have Paul’s Epistles, the heart of the Bible, and Romans 8 is the focus of the entire Bible! Here we see God coming into us to make Himself one with us so that He and us would be mingled together and be one entity with one living, where we are conformed to the image of the Son of God (Rom. 8:29)!

Romans 8 speaks of the center of the universe

What is the center of the universe? The scientists cannot tell us what this center is, but in the Bible we see that the center of the universe is the human spirit indwelt by God’s Spirit! This mingled spirit is the center of the universe, the center of the human life, and the center of the Christian life! The entire universe is centered on the earth, the center of the earth is man, and the center of man is his human spirit! The bullseye is the mingled spirit in man! Romans 8 speaks about the mystery of God, the mystery of the universe, the mystery of man, the mystery of the church, and the mystery of the future. The center of the universe is the mingled spirit in man!

human beings living by the divine life

Many believers and unbelievers alike want to live a perfect life, even “an angel life”, a virtuous life, and they do their best to improve themselves, perfect their living, abstain from certain things, refrain from saying things, etc… Because we fail so many times in doing this, we may ask for the Lord’s help to improve our living, our behavior, and if we succeed, we become proud and selfish about it. O, Lord Jesus, this is such an ensaring matter! It is in our nature as human beings to try to be better, to improve ourselves, and even ask for God’s help to have patience, to be more careful in our speaking, etc.

But this is NOT what God desires – God doesn’t want an improved human behavior with an increased self-effort every time. The result of this self-perfecting is pride and a stronger self, which cannot build up the Body! What God desires is that we as human beings would live by the divine life in our spirit. We realize we can’t make it, we can’t live as the Bible tells us or we would like to, so we inwardly turn to our spirit and humble ourselves, deny our human ability and energy, and live not by ourselves but by the indwelling Spirit! The Lord needs to recover this kind of spontaneous and normal living by the divine life!

a spontaneous and unconscious divine-human living

The result of denying ourselves and turning to our spirit, humbling ourselves and allowing the Lord to live in us, is a spontaneous, unconscious, automatic, and even unintentional normal human living by the divine life! It is not a deliberate living, it is not from our self effort, and we are not even conscious of it. We just turn to the Lord within, we empty and humble ourselves, we see how short of Christ and His divine attributes we are, and we live not by ourselves but by the Spirit. This is what Romans 8 speaks about, and this is what God desires – human beings living not by their human life or self-effort to be better, but living by the divine life in their spirit.

[sharing inspired from the sharing in message 3 and, The All-inclusive Indwelling Spirit, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Focus of the Lord's Recovery, week 2. Read more sharing on this morning revival via, The Focus of the Lord's Recovery, or purchase the book online via LSM. Picture source: Sunrise over the ocean.]

Oh Lord, save us from our self-effort to improve ourselves and better ourselves. Keep us turning to our spirit, Lord, where You as the Spirit are. Keep us depending on You, looking to You, and drawing all our life from You! Oh Lord, we just want to humble ourselves before You and not do anything without You. We don’t want to improve ourselves – we want You to live in us! Make us the human beings who live not by their natural life but by the divine life in their spirit!