In order for us to seek the things which are above and set our mind on them (Col. 3:1-2) we need to be those turning to our spirit by calling on the name of the Lord, and we need to experience the dividing of the soul from the spirit (Heb. 4:12).
The three parts of our being can be likened to three concentric spheres: the body is the outward sphere, the soul is within the body, and concealed in the soul we have the human spirit. We need to use the faculties of our soul to live, do our work, study, and do anything; we need to bear certain responsibilities, do certain things, and concentrate on our study or work.
We may have a good time with the Lord in the morning, but then we get to work and focus on the things we need to do, and by lunchtime we realize that we didn’t even think of God for a few hours. Our spirit is concealed and confined within our soul, so many times when we use the faculties of our soul to live and work, our spirit is neglected, for we live in our soul.
We need to have our soul and our spirit divided so that we may live simultaneously in our spirit one with the Lord while at the same time we take care of the things we need to do daily.
How can we be in spirit and do our job or study at the same time? We need to have the dividing of the soul and spirit; when they are divided and separated, outwardly we do our job or we study using the faculties of our soul, but the spirit is no longer imprisoned within the soul but it is free to be in fellowship with the ascended Christ all the time.
The more we experience the dividing of the soul and spirit, the more hours of our day we will live in a situation where we are able to respond immediately to a prompting from the Lord’s transmission inwardly, no matter what we are doing outwardly.
However, our situation is that hardly anyone is experiencing the dividing of the soul and spirit, so huge portions of our day are not available to the Lord. We need to be in a realm that is much higher than the realm we’re in right now by having the dividing of the soul and spirit.
When our spirit and our spirit are divided in a clear way, we continue to live our life with the outer man fulfilling its responsibilities, but inwardly there’s a drastic change, because our spirit is separated from the soul, and the spirit always receives the divine transmission.
Perhaps the greatest hindrance of all to our cooperating with the Lord in His heavenly ministry is our undealt with, unbroken outer man. We live most of our day in our outer man, and our soul and spirit are so mixed together that it is hard to contact the Lord throughout the day.
But if we are willing before the Lord to have the experiences we need to have the dividing of the soul and spirit, we will find ourselves living outwardly in the physical realm, while inwardly we live in the divine and mystical realm in spirit receiving the divine transmission.
If we all live our human life in this way, at any time the Lord would have some members of His Body ready to respond to a prompting that He would give, whether it is shepherding, interceding, visiting, or praying.
Lord Jesus, we want to seek the things above and set our mind on them by turning to our spirit and by having our soul and our spirit clearly divided. Give us the experiences we need that Your word would operate in our being to divide our soul from our spirit. Save us from living in our natural man, our outer man, or our flesh. We want to learn to live in our spirit all the time, even as we take care of our human responsibilities. Lord, we are willing to have the experiences we need for us to live one spirit with You all the time!
Turning to our Spirit and Calling on the Name of the Lord to be in Heaven and Seek the Things Above
Everything related to God, His economy, and His purpose, is in spirit, for God is Spirit; for us to seek the things above and set our mind on them, we need to turn to our spirit and experience the dividing of the soul from the spirit. For us to see anything related to God’s economy, we need to be in our mingled spirit.
Christ today is the Spirit joined to our spirit, and when we are in spirit, we are one with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). In order for us to contact God, experience Christ, and realize the Spirit, we must discern our spirit from our soul, and we must turn to our spirit.
We must always turn to our spirit to enter the Holy of Holies, where God is, and live in God’s presence. When we turn to our spirit, we enjoy Christ as the presence of God. When we turn to our spirit, we contact God in all His fullness and we enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the flowing of the water of life (Rev. 22:1-2).
When we turn to our spirit, we drink the Spirit as the flowing water of life and we are being transformed into the image of Christ, as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). It is only when we are in our spirit that we are in heaven and mind the things which are above.
When we are not in our spirit, we mind the things on the earth, and we are earthly and fleshly; but when we are turning to our spirit and call on the name of the Lord, we are in heaven, and we set our mind on the things which are above.
We need to learn to turn to our spirit again and again. In our experience we may enjoy the Lord and contact Him in spirit in our morning time with Him, but then something happens (our wife, our dog, the bus driver, the car, etc – many things around us can distract us away from our spirit) and we are immediately drawn out of the spirit into the flesh.
When we are outside our spirit, we are earthly and mind the things which are on the earth (Col. 3:2). The way to seek the things which are above is by turning to our spirit and call on the name of the Lord (Rom. 8:16; 10:12).
The Lord is rich to all who call on Him, and when we exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord, we are brought out of ourselves and into Christ, in a realm where Christ is everything to us.
When we turn to our spirit and call on the name of the Lord, we realize there’s another transcendent realm where Christ is ministering, and we contact this realm by being in the spirit to constantly receive the divine transmission.
When we turn to our spirit and call on the name of the Lord, we realize that He is the enthroned God-man Jesus, He is the High Priest, He’s the Heavenly Minister, He is the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, He is the One at the right hand of God, and He has the supreme preeminence in the universe.
And we call from the depths of our being, Oh Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!
Lord Jesus, we call on Your name and we exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You right now! We acknowledge that in ourselves we cannot seek the things above or set our mind on them. We turn our heart to You, Lord, and we exercise our spirit to call on Your name. Oh Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus! We turn right now, we call on Your name, and we set our eyes on You. You are the enthroned God-man, You are the High Priest, the Heavenly Minister, the Shepherd, and the One enthroned by God far above all. Praise You, Lord, for all that You are!
A Transmission is taking place from Christ in Heaven to us by means of the Spirit in our spirit
By believing into Christ we were connected to Him in spirit; His Spirit mingled with our spirit, and now we have a mingled spirit. Our Christian life is a life lived in the union of the two spirits – the divine and the human spirit.
When we are in our spirit, we are connected to Christ the Spirit, and there’s a divine transmission from the ascended Christ to us on earth. Praise the Lord, there’s a transmission going on from heaven to our spirit, and when we experience this transmission, we are truly in Christ, in the Father, and in heaven!
Our spirit is the gate of heaven, the place where we are connected to Christ; the heavenly transmission begins in heaven and ends in our spirit. We don’t have to go to heaven in order to experience the heavenly transmission: we simply need to turn to our spirit, for our spirit is connected to the heavens!
If you need to turn on the light in a room, you don’t have to go to the power plant and plug the lamp there; all you have to do is turn on the switch, for the lights and sockets are all connected to the power plant by means of the electrical grid.
All we have to do today as believers in Christ is to turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, and when we’re in our spirit, we are connected to the heavenly transmission from the Head, Christ.
Our cooperation is to be in spirit, constantly receiving the divine transmission; when we turn to our spirit and live in spirit, whatever the throne chooses to do can be transmitted into our spirit, and we can simply do it, with no resistance.
This is how we can cooperate with Christ’s heavenly ministry: it is by exercising our spirit to be in spirit and thus receiving the divine transmission. By turning to our spirit, we are lifted into heaven (see Rev. 4:1-2, where the angel told John to come up to heaven and see, and he immediately was in spirit and thus was in heaven).
The first order of business in our meetings should be to turn to our spirit. The first thing to do when we fellowship is to turn to the Lord in spirit, for He knows all the problems and He has a way to care for them.
Because of the transmission from the throne of God into our spirit, when we experience and enjoy Christ on earth, we are simultaneously in heaven.
Hallelujah, in spirit we are one in position with Christ, seeking the things which are above (Col. 3:1)! Amen! The way for us to seek the things above is to turn to our spirit and call on the name of the Lord; when we turn to our spirit, we receive the divine transmission, for our spirit is connected to the heavens.
Lord Jesus, make the divine transmission real in us. Cause us to know by experience what the divine transmission is. May we turn to our spirit, call on Your name, and live in spirit so that we may be one spirit with You, constantly receiving the divine dispensing. Oh Lord, in spirit we are one in position with You, seeking the things above – grant us to be in spirit more and more during the day! May we be lifted into heaven and live a heavenly life on earth as we turn to our spirit and seek the things which are above!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron K. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, pp. 519-520, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 1 (week 1), Seeking the Things Which Are Above.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God’s Spirit His transmission is, / In Him God enters into us; / It is in Him that God in Christ / May be experienced by us. (Hymns #610)
# In the God of our salvation we may take delight, / Calling on His name at all times, though in bliss or blight. / I will call upon His name as long as I shall live, / Because He has inclined His ear, and grace so full does give. (Hymns #1083)
# Turn to your spirit, where the Spirit of Jesus is, / Turn to your spirit, calling upon His name— / Now and forever, Jesus is the very same. / Turn to the Lord. Oh, turn to the Lord! (Song on turning to the spirit)
About aGodMan
We need to ask ourselves, then, whether we are in heaven or on earth. In answering this question we need to be careful. The proper way to answer is to say that when we are in spirit we are also in heaven, but when we are not in spirit we are on earth and, experientially, even under the earth. According to our experience, we know that in spirit we may be in heaven one minute and then, because we do not remain in our spirit, we may immediately plunge down to the earth. For example, during your time with the Lord in the morning, you may be in the heavenlies, having prayed yourself into the Spirit. But at the breakfast table your wife or husband may say something to bother you, and immediately you are drawn out of the spirit into the flesh. No longer are you in heaven; you are now on earth. This indicates that only when we are in spirit are we in heaven. Whenever we are outside the spirit, we are earthly.
In Colossians 3:1 Paul charges us to seek the things which are above. The way to seek these things is to turn to the spirit and call on the name of the Lord. Our experience tells us clearly that we touch the heavens by turning to our spirit, for our spirit is the receiving end of the divine transmission, whereas the throne of God in heaven is the transmitting end. Thus, by turning to our spirit, we are lifted into heaven. Then in our experience we are in Christ, in the Father, and in heaven. Then in the spirit we are one in position with Christ, seeking the things which are above. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 519-520, by Witness Lee)
Amen. Lord keep me in my mingled spirit.
Amen…
Oh Lord Jesus
Amen! In Colossians 3:1 Paul charges us to seek the things which are above. Thus, by turning to our spirit, we are lifted into heaven. Then in the spirit we are one position with Christ, seeking the things which are above. Praise the Lord for our living spirit!
Amen. Calling on His name it revives us so much and bring us to the realm where Christ is.
Amen, Oh, Lord Jesus..
PRAISE THE LORD!
Amen, Lord Jesus be with our spirit.
Thank you LORD JESUS for have bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies we love continue making your home in our hearts trough faith been rooted and grounded in love aleluya señor jesus
Is the power of his ressurection and asencion that operates in us by turning and exercing our spirit
Turning to our spirit-lifted into heaven. Amen.
So wonderful to keep turning and gazing upon our Lord day by day as he presents Himself more and more to us. He is fresh and new every day, never old. I am getting older but touching his Spirit enlivens me to see I will face eternity with my Lord and King, joyously.
Amen! Oh Lord Jesus, how much we love to turn to You and be refreshed by You continually!
We need to call on the Lord daily. He is rich to those who call on Him.
Amen. Lord Jesus. Turning and calling.