Living and Walking by the Spirit, Sowing unto the Spirit, and Boasting in the Cross

The way for us to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is by living and walking by the Spirit, by having Christ formed in us through travail, by sowing unto the Spirit, and by enjoying the Lord’s grace with our spirit. Amen!

This week we are prayerfully considering what is the way for us believers in Christ to enjoy the Spirit as the blessing of the gospel. In the book of Galatians, we are told that we believers in Christ are descendants of Abraham, and we inherit the promised blessing, which is Christ Himself as the Spirit.

Abraham is our spiritual father; we are sons of Abraham in spirit, for we are regenerated by faith in Christ, and we live by faith to enjoy all the riches of God promised to us. Christ came to accomplish God’s purpose through incarnation, and in particular, He was a threefold seed.

He is the seed of the woman, promised to Eve in Gen. 3:15; He came to destroy the works of the devil and to put him to shame, even to destroy the devil on the cross. Hallelujah!

He is the seed of Abraham promised in Gen. 12:2-3; as the seed of Abraham, Christ came to be the blessing to all the nations and to give us the Spirit as the reality of the good land.

Christ is the seed of David promised in 2 Sam. 7:12-14; as the seed of David, He was transfigured to be the Son of God in power, and He brings in the kingdom of God.

As we enjoy Christ as the threefold seed in humanity, we become one with Him to be part of the seed of the woman to crush and destroy the devil.

We are one with Him and participate in His blessing, even become a blessing to others, for we enjoy and minister the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit to others, thus being part of the corporate seed of Abraham.

We are one with Christ to be part of the corporate seed of David, for we, like Christ, will be transfigured to become sons of God in full, and we are one with Christ to bring in the kingdom of God. Hallelujah!

Today, in our daily living, we need to have a way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God.

We need to first have Christ revealed in us, for the Christ we experience and enjoy is based on the Christ we see. Then, we need to be under the hearing of faith so that we may be infused with Christ and live Christ.

We need to be identified with Christ in His death and live in His resurrection, allowing Christ to live in us. May we see the way for us to enjoy the Spirit as the blessing of the gospel and may we be the top enjoyers of the Spirit in our daily life!

Enjoy the Spirit as the Blessing by Living and Walking by the Spirit

Gal. 5:16 and 25 give us the way for us to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit – it is by living and walking by the Spirit. To live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit encompasses our whole being and our whole daily living; we need to have our whole being by the Spirit.

The Spirit of God came into our spirit and mingled Himself with our spirit (Rom. 8:16); to live and walk by the Spirit is to live and walk by the mingled spirit.

How do we do this? How can we be those living and walking by the Spirit every moment of our daily life? It is a matter of practice.

First, we need to see that we have been identified with Christ. In our spirit, we are one with the Lord. Hallelujah, we are one spirit with the Lord, and whenever we turn to our spirit, the Lord mingles Himself with us a little more every day!

Seeing that we are one spirit with the Lord, we need to simply call on the name of the Lord. We need to start in the morning by calling on the name of the Lord. The first thing we need to do in the morning is turn our heart to the Lord and call on His name.

We should not be loose in the morning, taking our time to do this and that; rather, as we do this and that, we need to call on the name of the Lord to touch Him. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord, we are in spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).

When we call on the name of the Lord, we enjoy the riches of Christ. As we call on the name of the Lord early in the morning, we start the day in a good way, and the whole day is being headed up in Christ.

When we have a good beginning in the morning by contacting the Lord, we will be able to face any situation during the day. Then, as we go through things during the day, we need to keep calling on the name of the Lord. To call on the name of the Lord again and again is to live and walk by the Spirit.

May we practice living and walking by the Spirit throughout the day. May we practice turning from our self, our natural man, and our flesh, and simply exercising our spirit to contact the Lord.

As we are about to do this or that, we need to first contact the Lord. The Lord is in our spirit, and we are one spirit with the Lord.

We need to realise that we are one with the Lord, and we need to remain in the organic union with Him throughout the day.

As we take care of many things throughout the day, as we do our job at work or take care of the family affairs, as we study or travel, we need to contact the Lord again and again by calling on His name.

This is what we need today; we need to live and walk by the Spirit. As we are living and walking by the Spirit, contacting the Lord by calling on His name again and again, we will enjoy the Spirit as the blessing in our daily life in a practical way.

Lord Jesus, we want to receive, experience, and enjoy the Spirit as the blessing of the gospel by living and walking by the Spirit today! Amen, Lord, thank You for coming into us to be joined to us as one spirit! Hallelujah, Christ lives in us, for He is the Spirit mingled with our spirit as one spirit! We exercise our spirit, dear Lord, to just call on Your name! Oh Lord Jesus, keep us calling on Your name today! Fill us with Yourself. Fill us with Your spirit. Keep us contacting You throughout the day! Hallelujah, in our spirit we are one with the Lord, and He lives in us! Amen, Lord, we want to have our whole being by the Spirit. We call on Your name again and again to just contact You and be filled with You. We want to live and walk by the Spirit by calling on the name of the Lord at all time and in every place!

Enjoy the Spirit as the Blessing by having Christ Formed in us and by Sowing unto the Spirit

The way for us to receive, enjoy, and experience the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit is by having Christ formed in us through travail, as seen in Gal. 4:19.

Christ is being formed in us. This involves labour and travail. We need to turn to the Lord again and again, and we need to let Christ be formed in us.

Christ is in us, but He needs to grow in us. His image is in our spirit, but He needs to be expressed through us.

As we practice turning our heart to the Lord and exercising our spirit to behold Him face to face, we are being transformed into the same image, and Christ is formed in us. His image is being formed in us. This involves much travail.

Also, this is not in, of, and by ourselves, but this is in the Body and through the Body. We need the Body, the members of the Body, to travail over us so that Christ may be formed in us.

We also need to cooperate with the Lord to travail so that Christ may be formed in the saints.

Another way to enjoy, experience, and receive the all-inclusive Spirit as the blessing of the gospel is by sowing unto the Spirit with the desire and aim of the Spirit in view, to accomplish what the Spirit desires (Gal. 6:7-8).

Everything we do sows a seed. Whatever we do, we are sowing seeds. When we speak a certain word in the spirit as we are living and walking in the Spirit, we sow seeds of life.

But if we are in the flesh and speak words in the flesh, we sow seeds in the flesh which lead to death.

When the Lord shines on us and shows us that so much of what we do and say is sowing unto the flesh, we will come to the Lord, repent before Him, and turn to Him.

We will pray that we would be those living and walking in the Spirit so that whatever we do, whatever we say, and even our attitude and countenance, be a sowing unto the Spirit.

He who sows unto his own flesh will reap corruption of the flesh, but he who sows unto the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life. May we be before the Lord concerning our daily living.

May we open to Him and let Him infuse us with Himself throughout the day. This is why we need to call on the name of the Lord during the day, beginning in the morning.

When we call on the name of the Lord from deep within, we are filled with the Lord as life. When we call on the Lord’s name, we are inwardly filled with the Lord, and He also washes us, cleanses us, and saturates us with Himself.

Then, we come to the Lord in His word to have our mind renewed in the word of God. How much we need our mind to be renewed, washed, cleansed, and purified!

If we are passive and do not actively allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, our mind will be oldness, filled with concepts, and death is there. If we do not learn to actively set our mind on our spirit, we will sense death, but if we set our mind on our spirit, we enjoy life and peace (Rom. 8:6).

Out of the abundance of the heart, our mouth speaks; we need to gather the Lord’s word in our heart, buy the truth, treasure the truth, and we will have a treasure in our heart from which we will sow unto the Spirit.

Day by day we need to cooperate with the Lord in our personal life to be filled in spirit, to walk and live in the Spirit, and to sow unto the Spirit.

If we sow something high and good, we will reap the same, but if we sow something mean and low, we will reap the same thing.

May we really come to the Lord about this, for we sow what we are, and we will reap either corruption or eternal life.

Even the way we dress is a sowing; when others see us, they get a certain impression of how a believer is and walks.

When we dress in a certain way, when we style our hair in a particular way, and when we walk and talk in a particular way, we sow seeds.

We should not be deceived – God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, he will also reap. May we sow unto the Spirit and reap according to the Spirit today!

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see You face to face so that we may be transformed into the same image. Amen, Lord, we want to behold You and reflect You so that Christ may be formed in us! Oh Lord, may You spread in our inward being, reconstitute us with Yourself, grow in us, and be formed in us! May Christ’s image be imprinted and seen in us more and more, day by day! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You today to enjoy You and experience You as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Fill us with Yourself. Keep us calling on Your name. We want to sow unto the Spirit and not sow unto the flesh. Oh Lord, may we be those sowing unto the Spirit with the desire and aim of the Spirit! Save us from sowing unto the flesh, which leads to us reaping corruption. Oh Lord, may no corrupt word proceed out of our mouth, but that which is good for building up! Work Yourself into us. Fill us with Your word. May we express You and sow unto the Spirit day by day so that we may accomplish what the Spirit desires!

Enjoy and Experience the Spirit as the Blessing by Boasting in the Cross of Christ and by Enjoying the Grace of Christ with our Spirit

Gal. 6:14-15 gives us the ninth way in Galatians for us to receive, experience, and enjoy the Spirit as the blessing: boasting in the cross of Christ and living a new creation.

As believers in Christ, far be it for us to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to us and we have been crucified to the world. The cross of Christ is our boast.

We boast not in how much we know, what we have, what we can do, and even in what experiences we have of Christ; we boast in the cross of Christ.

This means that the cross of Christ operates in us to terminate anything and everything of the natural man with its natural things. We boast in the fact that everything has been terminated on the cross.

We do not boast in our car but in the cross of Christ. We do not boast in our big house or the clothes we wear, for our love of a big house and the love of stylish fashions have all been terminated.

Everything of the world has been terminated on the cross. Everything has been crossed out; we boast in this, the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and the cross of Christ has terminated everything of the old creation. Now we are a new creation.

We don’t even boast in our spiritual knowledge or spiritual accomplishments; we boast in the cross of Christ. What matters is not circumcision nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.

Everything is new now, for we are a new creation in Christ. What matters is that we are in Christ, Christ is in us, we have been crucified with Christ, and the world has been crucified to us and us to the world. Praise the Lord!

Now we are a new creation, and we walk in newness of life. We boast in the cross of Christ, and we live a new creation! Amen!

The consummate way for us to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ as the Spirit is by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with our spirit (Gal. 6:18).

The epistle to the Galatians concludes with, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Wow.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit; this is how we can receive, enjoy, and experience the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the reality of the blessing of the gospel.

When we exercise our spirit, when we are living and walking in our spirit, we enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with our spirit.

It all boils down to this: the Spirit with our spirit. The wonderful, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit is with our spirit, and this Spirit leads us to the hearing of faith, to put on Christ, to be crucified, to walk and live in the Spirit, respond to the Spirit, sow unto the Spirit, live by the Spirit, walk according to the Spirit, boast in the cross of Christ, live a new creation, and enjoy the grace of Christ with our spirit.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit so that we may receive, enjoy, and experience Christ as the Spirit, the blessing of the gospel.

Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the Spirit, the blessing of the gospel, by boasting in the cross of Christ! Hallelujah, we have been crucified with Christ! Praise the Lord, through the cross of Christ we are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us! Amen, Lord, we no longer belong to this world, and our unique boast is nothing of this world but the cross of Christ! Praise the Lord, through the cross we have been terminated, the world has been terminated, and we are now a new creation in Christ! Amen, Lord, we now live in resurrection as a new creation, and we live in the mingled spirit! Hallelujah, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit! Amen, Lord, we take You as grace today. You are grace with our spirit. We turn to our spirit. We exercise our spirit. We exercise to enjoy You as the Spirit with our spirit, for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit! Keep us enjoying You today as the Spirit with our spirit.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, vol. 1, “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation,” ch. 14, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 20 (msg. 8), The Way to Receive, Experience, and Enjoy the All-inclusive Christ as the All-inclusive Life-giving Spirit— the Aggregate of the All-embracing Blessing of the Full Gospel of God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Living and walking by the Spirit, a portion from, Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – Overflowing on the Focus of the Lord’s Recovery, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Being the aim of the believers’ sowing, a portion from, The Christian Life, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ Being Formed in Us, via, Living to Him.
  – Christ as the seed of life sown into us to grow within us for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Galatians (Program #29) – How to Restore the Fallen One, via, Bible study radio.
  – Living and walking by the mingled spirit, a portion from, The Christian Life, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
  – The Crucial Role of Our Mind in Our Christian Life, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Boasting in one’s weaknesses, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 24: The Overcoming Life, Chapter 5, by Watchman Nee.
  – A Seed is Sown, Grows, Becomes Stone for Building, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The secret of staying on the cross, a portion from, The Experience of Christ, Chapter 23, by Witness Lee.
  – Discovering my Human Spirit, testimony via, The Church in Anaheim.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – When we survey the wondrous cross / On which the Lord of glory died, / Our richest gain we count but loss, / And pour contempt on all our pride. / Our God forbid that we should boast, / Save in the death of Christ, our Lord; / All the vain things that charm us most, / We’d sacrifice them to His blood. (Hymns #101 stanzas 1-2)
  – Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness, / Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve; / Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping, / We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. / Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, / We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves; / Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, / We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. (Hymns #1349 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – It is this grace—Christ as our inward strength— / Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill; / It is this grace which in our spirit is, / There energizing, working out God’s will. / This grace, which is the living Christ Himself, / Is what we need and must experience; / Lord, may we know this grace and by it live, / Thyself increasingly as grace to sense. (Hymns #297 stanzas 4-5)