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Posts Tagged ‘the mingled spirit’

the focus of God’s economy is the mingled spirit, the Spirit mingled with our spirit

30 Jan

the focus of God's economy is the mingled spirit, the Spirit mingled with our spiritLast week we saw what the focus of the Bible and the center of the universe is, mainly in Romans 8. This week we are going further and deeper to see what the focus of God’s economy is – the mingled spirit. Rom. 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God – there are two spirits. 1 Cor. 6:17 says that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit – this shows that the divine Spirit has been joined and mingled with our human spirit to become one spirit, the mingled spirit! Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ now have a mingled spirit!

the focus of God’s economy – the mingled spirit

God’s economy is focused on the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit. Because there is such a thing as a mingled spirit, it is difficult for the translators to render “pneuma” (Greek for, spirit) as Spirit (capital S) or spirit (small s). In so many places in the Epistles of Paul we see the mingled spirit! We need to walk according to the spirit, be in the spirit, set our mind on the spirit, etc. Actually, whatever God intends to do or accomplish is related to this focus – our mingled spirit! We need to see and have a clear understanding of the mingled spirit as the focus of God’s economy.

the union of God and man

What God desires throughout the whole Bible is that He would be joined to man, and in the New Testament we see that this joining is possible by God becoming the life-giving Spirit coming into us to join Himself to our human spirit. The union of God and man is a matter entirely of the union of the two spirits. How does this union occur? This is a great mystery which we cannot explain or comprehend – but the divine Spirit (the processed and consummated Triune God) is joined to our human spirit to become the mingled spirit in us! Praise the Lord!

the essence of the New Testament

I am so happy that in the ministry of brother Witness Lee and Watchman Nee we don’t “skate on the surface” of the divine truth in the Bible but we are encouraged to go deeper and see the intrinsic significance of the Word of God. Everyone may read, understand, appreciate, and even become a specialist in the history of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. But do you see what is the essence and the focus of the Lord’s history as recorded in the New Testament? It is one thing to know “the substance” of the story of Jesus, but it is something else to know what is “the essence” of the Lord’s life on earth.

An apple is substantial, but the essence or abstract of the apple is the apple juice. What is the essence, the abstract, of the entire New Testament? What is the New Testament talking about in its essence? In, The Experience and Growth in Life (by brother Lee) we see that the essence of the New Testament is the mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit to be one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The whole New Testament – with the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation – talks in its essence and abstract about one thing, the mingled spirit!

joining and mingling

In conclusion, I cannot say it better than the wonderful footnote in 1 Cor. 6:17 – see notes 1 and 2. I am looking forward to more in-depth knowledge, appreciation, and experience of the mingled spirit as the focus of God’s economy!

1 Cor. 6:17, note 1: This refers to the believers’ organic union with the Lord through believing into Him (John 3:15-16). This union is illustrated by that of the branches with the vine (John 15:4-5). It is a matter not only of life but in life (the divine life). Such a union with the resurrected Lord can only be in our spirit.

1 Cor. 6:17, note 2: This indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. Our spirit has been regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), who is now in us (v. 19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). This is the realization of the Lord, who became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection (15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) and who is now with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This mingled spirit is often referred to in Paul’s Epistles, e.g., in Rom. 8:4-6.

References and Further Reading

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see the focus of Your economy! Save us from having a shallow knowledge and appreciation of what the Bible speaks about in its essence. Lord, our mingled spirit! Thank You for becoming the Spirit to join and mingle Yourself with our spirit. Lord, we praise You for our spirit mingled with the divine Spirit. We want to know our spirit, live in our spirit, and have our being in our mingled spirit!

 
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Posted in Christ became the Spirit, Christ lives in me, Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, expounding the truth, God became a man, God's economy, morning revival, the Christian Life, the Lord's recovery, the Triune God

 

the processed Triune God has come into us and dwells in us as the Spirit in our spirit

27 Jan

the processed Triune God has come into us and dwells in us as the Spirit in our spirit [picture source: National Park]This is the central focus of the universe and the center of the Bible, even the center of God’s plan – the processed and consummated Triune God coming into us to dwell in us as the Spirit in our spirit. This is the greatest miracle in the universe, and nothing else in the universe is more important than our spirit mingled with the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (Isa. 66:1-2; John 14:23; 15:4)! What can be more important than the Triune God being in us, living in us, and being everything to us as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit?

the Triune God dwells in us and is one with us

Saints, we should all be full of joy since the entire Triune God is indwelling us and is one with us! The Triune God as the Spirit is our life and our person, and He is making us His home (Eph. 3:14-17). If we see this, we will be super-excited – we will be happy Christians! Praise the Lord – the Triune God lives in us! God has been processed and consummated through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and now He is the Spirit coming into our spirit to be in us, live in us, and spread in our whole being! Lord Jesus, show us this glorious and wonderful fact!

the Spirit who dwells in us is the Triune God

We need to see this to the point of being impressed with this and having this as a vision governing us daily – the Spirit who dwells in us is the entire Triune God dwelling in us! This is seen clearly in Rom. 8, where Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One – He is the all-inclusive Spirit! The Spirit is actually the ultimate consummation of the Triune God and the ultimate application of the Triune God to the believers! When the Triune God comes to us, He is the Spirit, and the Spirit brings the Triune God to us.

The Triune God is a mystery – we cannot understand with our limited human mind and understanding HOW CAN IT BE that God is One yet Three. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are One, co-existing (existing at the same time) and co-inhering (existing in one another). This is a mystery… But what we know from the Bible, especially from Romans 8, is that the Spirit who indwells us brings the entire Triune God into us! What we have in us is a mystery – the Spirit dwells in us, Christ the Son is in us, and God the Father is in us – the entire Triune God is in us, being made real to us and applied to us by and as the Spirit!

the Spirit makes the Triune God subjective to us

We have never seen God or touched Him physically, but we have seen and touched His creation. Also, the Bible tells us that God dwells in an unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). In a similar way, we cannot and should not touch the electricity – we cannot see it, but we know it’s there. What makes the electricity real to us is its application to the many electrical appliances around the home, the lights, etc. What makes God real and subjective to us is the Spirit! The Spirit is the application, the reaching, of the Triune God to us! Praise the Lord, we can touch, experience, and enjoy the Triune God as the indwelling Spirit! Don’t you LOVE your mingled spirit?

References and Further Reading:

Lord, cause us to see this wonderful fact – the Triune God dwells in us as the Spirit in our spirit! Open our eyes, Lord, to really see this triune occupant – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – as the Spirit dwelling in our spirit. May we really see and appreciate the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. How thankful we are for this wonderful Spirit with our spirit who applies all that God is to our being!

 
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Posted in Christ became the Spirit, Christ lives in me, Enjoying Christ, expounding the truth, God's economy, morning revival, our birthright, the all-inclusive Christ, the Christian Life, the high peak, the Lord's recovery, the Triune God

 

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

23 Jan

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!

 
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Posted in Christ lives in me, Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, God's economy, O Lord Jesus!, the Christian Life, the high peak, the Lord's recovery

 

man has a spirit to receive God and be mingled with God (winter school of truth)

06 Jan

man has a spirit to receive God and be mingled with God (winter school of truth)Zechariah 12:1 says, “Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him“. This verse shows that in God’s creation He made three crucial, equally important items: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. For many centuries, much attention have been paid to the heavens and the earth but not the spirit of man. Why did God form the spirit of man and what is the purpose of this spirit? In the Winter School of Truth 2011, we were blessed with much speaking about the spirit of man and the Spirit of God.

We saw that God made made man with a spirit as a vessel to contain and contact God the Spirit (the Divine Spirit). Before I became a believer, my spirit was deadened, but once I believed in the Lord, my spirit was made alive with the divine Spirit. Now the divine Spirit is mingled with my human spirit. The divine Spirit contains everything that Christ has obtained and attained. This means that the Spirit is All-Inclusive; everything I need is now in my mingle spirit!

Now, I daily need to learn to live by my mingled spirit through praying, praising, pray-reading, and fellowshipping with fellow believers. The more I practice this, the more Christ will grow in me and spread into my entire being.

Lord Jesus, all I need in 2012 is to gain more of You for the sake of Your building and Your spread in Europe. 

[short sharing from the 2011 Winter School of Truth by brother E.F. who helped serve in this week. Praise the Lord for our mingled spirit - the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit! In the mingled spirit we have everything we need! ... To share your enjoyment from this time, email us at enjoyingthelord@gmail.com with your topmost enjoyment :) ]
 
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Posted in Christ lives in me, Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, expounding the truth, God's economy, O Lord Jesus!, serving the saints, the Christian Life, the Lord's recovery, the Word of God

 

God’s economy is fully accomplished by the exercise of our mingled spirit (as revealed in Ephesians)

31 May

Praise the Lord for God’s economy! The economy of God(His household administration according to His heart’s desire) revealed in the book of Ephesians is accomplished by the exercise of our mingled spirit for the dispensing of the Triune God into us unto the building up of the church as the Body of Christ(1 Tim. 1:3-6; Eph. 1:5; 1 Tim. 3:9)! Wow, what a statement! In the book of Ephesians we see – in every chapter – the mingled spirit(which is our human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit which has been compounded, is all-inclusive, and has been consummated). When we turn to our spirit and we exercise our spirit, we touch the Body of Christ – because the Body is in our spirit! It is so real and it is so practical - God’s economy to build up the Body of Christ is accomplished and carried out by our turning to the mingled spirit and our exercise of our spirit! In every chapter of the book of Ephesians we see the mingled spirit mentioned – for the building up of the Body of Christ!

  1. Ephesians 1:17 reveals that we need to pray to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see the mystery of God’s economy – which is to dispense Christ as the mystery of God into God’s chosen people to make them the reality of the Body of Christ as the mystery of Christ(Eph. 1:17-18; Col. 2:2). We need the revelation and the enlightenment to see the mystery of God’s economy – and then we also need to understand, to apprehend, what we see by the divine wisdom. This is all in our spirit for the building up of the Body!
  2. Ephesians 2:22 reveals that our spirit is the dwelling place of God! We are being built together into a dwelling place of God – in our mingled spirit! God as the Spirit mingled Himself with our spirit, and our spirit is His dwelling place. This is where God dwells, and this is how His economy is accomplished – in our mingled spirit!
  3. Ephesians 3:5 reveals that the mingled spirit is the means by which the revelation of Christ and the church is revealed to the apostles and prophets. If we are going to understand and realize the reality of God’s mysterious economy, we must learn to discern our spirit from our soul – and remain in our spirit! Also, in Eph. 3:16 we clearly see that our spirit is our inner man, our new person(our new man) – we need to be strengthened with power into the inner man for Christ to make His home in our heart – with the result that the reality of the Body life is being produced! When Christ came into us He came into our spirit; now He wants to continue to make His home into all the inward parts of our being, into all our heart! For this to happen, He strengthens us into our inner man, into our spirit, for the fulfillment of God’s economy!
  4. Ephesians 4:23 reveals that we need to allow the renewing Spirit mingled with our regenerated spirit to become the spirit of our mind! Wow, our troublesome mind can be invaded and occupied by the mingled spirit as we turn to our spirit and we exercise our spirit! As the mingled spirit spreads into our mind, it takes it over and occupies it – to the extent that it becomes the spirit of our mind! Here we are daily renewed until we become as new as the New Jerusalem for the reality of the Body of Christ(Eph. 4:24; Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 4:16)!
  5. Ephesians 5:18 reveals that we need to be filled in spirit! Don’t be filled in the body with wine, but be filled with the beautifying, bride-preparing Spirit which is mingled with our spirit, so that we can be prepared to be Christ’s glorious church, His beautiful bride for His expression! How are we filled? It is by SPEAKING – psalms, spiritual songs, hymns, etc. By our speaking the Word of God through the exercise of our spirit, we are filled in spirit and we spontaneously are submissive to one another for the proper church life and the Body life(Eph. 5:26-27; Isa. 60:7; Gen. 1:26)!
  6. Ephesians 6:18 reveals that we must pray at every time in spirit – we need to pray not only with our mind, but with our mingled spirit! When we pray in spirit, we experience the “slaying Spirit” mingled with our spirit, and God’s adversary is killed within us! This will enable us to rule in the divine life of the Spirit over Satan, sin, and death for God’s dominion!

Wow, what a revelation! I thoroughly enjoyed all these points as dug out from the Bible and the ministry and presented in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Central Line of the Bible! To know God’s eocnomy, to receive His dispensing, and to participate in Christ’s transmission, we must know, we must see, and we must exercise our spirit! We need to be spirit-exercising people for the accomplishing of God’s economy to build up the Body of Christ for the consummation of the New Jerusalem!

Amen, Lord, make us such people! Grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see the mystery of Your economy! Thank You, Lord, our spirit is the dwelling place of God! It is in our mingled spirit that God’s economy is fulfilled! Lord, strengthen us into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart! Strenghen us into our spirit! May our spirit spread into our mind more and more until it becomes the spirit of our mind! We want to be filled in spirit! We want to pray in spirit for the accomplishing of Your economy!

 
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Posted in Christ lives in me, Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, expounding the truth, God's economy, the all-inclusive Christ, the Body of Christ, the high peak, the Lord's recovery

 

some enjoyment from my first term of training in the FTTL(the Full Time Training in London)

22 Jul

Thank You Lord for Your mercy – I have completed the first term of the full-time training in London. It is really the Lord’s sovereignty that I could give myself to Him to be trained together with those who love Him in this wonderful environment.

I have to say that my first term has been so enjoyable and, of course, there also have been many dealings with the Lord to break my outer man. I guess one of my topmost enlightenments was to be exposed in my character. Only by the divine shining from the Lord would we really know who we are (John 3:21). It is never by the self adjustment or being told by others’ self-made light, but it is by the shining from God as light that we see what we really are. I realized that our disposition and national character could create big hindrances for the work of the Lord. In our going on with the Lord, I realize more and more that our usefulness to the Lord is intimately related to our character. Particularly in the matter of coordination, many times I was exposed to see that I acted according to my inborn nature. The Lord will never use our natural ability and capability because they go against the principle of the Body. I see that the stronger our disposition is, the less our function is manifested. For us to be useful to the Lord, we first need to overthrow our disposition in prayer and give Him our full cooperation to perfect and train us with a proper character.

Having completed the first term, I realized that I do not even know how to love people. Only the divine love could be approved by the fire and is everlasting unto eternity (1 Cor. 3:10-15). If we do not take heed to the mingled spirit, it is so easy to create intimate relationships according to our natural choice, which is typified by the honey in the Old Testament. And this would eventually become leaven. I start to see more and more that the key to our Christian life and the kernel of God’s economy is the mingled spirit (Eph. 3:5). The moment we are not in our mingled spirit, we are one with Satan in our flesh (Rom. 8:6; Gal. 5:16, 25; 6:8). May we be exercised to pay attention and remain in our mingled spirit.

I also appreciated that the training provides you many opportunities to spend time with the Lord, just to be infused with Him and to appreciate Him – the very person of the Lord Jesus – alone. We all love the Lord, and almost every time our first response in loving the Lord is to offer Him something, to work for Him. Actually, many times the Lord desires that we would come to Him, as much as we desire to seek Him the very person (Hymn #1048). The more I spend time with the Lord, the more I realize that we would never graduate from confession – we need to keep a pure and clean conscience (2 Cor. 4:12; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19) and consecration – we are of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20). This is the key for me to start a fresh day with the Lord in the morning as daily basis. Then it would be easier to continue the rest of the day. [guest post: the second part of YeeYee's testimony on Bringing Christ to my friends]

 
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Posted in consecration, Enjoying Christ, feeding on the Lord, love the Lord, serving the saints, the Lord's recovery, yp sharing

 

Romans 8 and The Sure Mercies of David – it’s all in the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit

26 Jun

Wow. Romans 8 may be considered the greatest chapter in the entire Bible because in this chapter we see the Divine Spirit is with the human spirit. The Spirit is with our spirit, even mingled with our spirit to be one spirit. 1 Cor 6:17 says “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit”. The crucial point in the book of Romans is “Christ in you” (Rom 8:10).

I am so impressed that God as the Divine Spirit is mingled with our Human Spirit to execute His dynamic salvation for the believers to participate in. On God’s side He is executing, to liberate, deliver, sanctify and glorify the believers. On our side we are participating & enjoying His salvation. Isaiah 55:3 says,

Incline your ear and come to Me, Hear, so that your soul may live, And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, Even the sure mercies shown to David.

This covenant is a contract or an agreement signed by the Lord to us, which means that we have a secured & constant enjoyment of the Lord. Even our enjoyment becomes insured! This everlasting covenant is the best insurance company to insure our enjoyment of the sure mercies of David. The sure mercies of David are all that the Lord is for the house of David. The apostle Paul interprets the sure mercies as “the holy things of David, the faithful things“, and indicates that these things are Christ Himself in resurrection.

In Christ as the sure mercies, God reaches us in His grace to be our enjoyment. Christ is both the sure mercies and the eternal covenant that guarantees these mercies. As the sure mercies of God, the resurrected Christ became the base of God’s justification to His believers. Based on such a justification in Christ’s resurrection, the believers can be sanctified by enjoying Christ, the son of David (Matt 1:1), as God’s sure mercies, i.e., as the Holy One who did not see corruption (Acts 13:35).

Hallelujah, the son of David who is the seed of David (Rom 1:3) is the sure mercies of David to the house of David. Today we are the house of David enjoying the sure mercies of David, which are the riches of the divine life which is the Divine Spirit mingled with our Human Spirit. All that the Lord is today is the sure mercies to the house of David.

Source: The crucial revelation of life in the Scriptures, by Witness Lee, and the Recovery Version of the Bible, footnotes on Isa 55:3 [sharing by bro. Moh]

 
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Posted in expounding the truth, God became a man, the high peak, the Word of God

 
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