Being Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man

The only possibility of God’s purpose being fulfilled in this age is that we all would be willing to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; this renewal of the mind is for the practical existence of the one new man.

What God desires to gain in this age is the one new man; He has already created the new man in the body of Christ on the cross, and the church today is the one new man.

However, for the practical existence of the one new man, we all need to put off the old man and put on the new man by being renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23).

This expression, “the spirit of our mind” is something very particular in Paul’s writing; it refers not to our mind but to our mingled spirit which spreads into our mind and saturates our mind, becoming the spirit of our mind.

The key to putting off the old man and putting on the new man for God to have the one new man who fulfills His eternal purpose is for us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

On the one hand, we were all baptised in the Spirit into one Body, and on the other, we were all given to drink of the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). When we believed into the Lord, we were baptised in the Spirit into one Body; this means that we were put into the Spirit, we were filled with the Spirit outwardly.

Then, day by day, we are being given to drink of the one Spirit, so that the Spirit who fills us outwardly would also fill us inwardly to renew us daily.

It is by this Spirit – which is the Lord Himself as the life-giving Spirit – that we are being renewed, for this Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and this mingled spirit is spreading into our mind to saturate our mind and renew us in the spirit of the mind.

To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is something inward and intrinsic; when the mingled spirit is enlightened and stirred up by the Lord and it spreads into our mind, our mind is revolutionised, and our logic, philosophy, thought, concept, and psychology is changed and adjusted, revolutionised.

We simply need to drink of the Spirit, exercising our spirit to receive more of the divine Spirit into us, and our mingled spirit will slowly spread from the realm of our spirit to our mind, emotion, and will, until our whole inward being is renewed.

The key to having the practical existence of the one new man is being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and this happens daily.

Being Willing to be Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind for God’s Purpose to be Fulfilled in this Age

The only possibility for God’s eternal purpose to be fulfilled in this age is if we all are willing to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

God can do many things outwardly, and the world situation is something He can change just like that; however, He needs His people to allow Him to spread from their spirit into their mind and their whole inward being, so that He may possess and saturate their inward being for the one new man.

We need to open ourselves up and drink of the Spirit in order that the Spirit may get into our being and saturate our natural mentality, so that we can have a metabolic change in our way of life. When this happens, there’s much possibility for the new man to come into full existence.

God’s eternal purpose, the purpose of the ages which He made in Christ in eternity past for eternity future (Eph. 3:11) is that He would gain the one new man to express Him and represent Him.

The key to the practical existence of the one new man is being willing to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23).

Are we willing? We need to at least be willing to be renewed. And even if we are willing, we need to realize that we are still very limited in our experience of being renewed in the spirit of the mind.

It is not easy to be renewed in the spirit of the mind, and we see this with two of the leading apostles in the New Testament, Peter and Paul.

In Acts 2 Peter saw and experienced the one new man, for it was on the day of Pentecost that the Jewish part of the Body of Christ that was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and many spoke in tongues; the barrier of tongues was broken, and the oneness among the believers was manifested.

Then in Acts 10 Peter had a trance, and he saw the great sheet coming from the heaven with all kinds of unclean animals, and a voice told him to rise, slay and eat; later as he went to the house of Cornelius he realized the meaning of this.

Even as he was speaking to them, the Holy Spirit “interrupted him” and was poured out upon them, and they were baptized in the Spirit. Has Peter seen the one new man? Yes.

However, in Gal. 2 we see that Peter ate with the Gentiles and, when some came from James, he separated himself from the Gentiles; therefore, Paul withstood him, pointing out that this is contrary to the gospel.

This really shows us that, for the practical existence of the one new man, we all need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; this renewing is not very thorough in us.

If we look at Paul, he was advanced in the religion of his parents, and when the Lord met him on the way to Damascus, he saw the Body of Christ, the vision of the universal man. Then he spoke in Gal. 2:27-29 and in 1 Cor. 12:13 that there cannot be Jew or Greek, but we all were baptized in one Spirit into one Body.

However, when we come to Acts 21 we see that Paul went to Jerusalem to clear up the source of the mixture, and he went to the temple to make a Nazarite vow…and God stopped this: He brought about a riot to get Paul out of that situation, and from Prison he wrote that Christ is all and in all in the new man (Col. 3:11).

Furthermore, he wrote an entire epistle – the Epistle to Philemon – to point out the equal status of the believers into the one new man.

From these we see that it is not that easy to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, but we need to be willing to be renewed for the practical existence of the one new man.

Lord Jesus, we are willing to be renewed in the spirit of our mind for the fulfillment of God’s purpose in this age. Lord, for the practical existence of the one new man, we give ourselves to be daily renewed in the spirit of our mind. We open ourselves up to You to drink of the Spirit so that the Spirit may get into our being, saturate our natural mentality, and cause us to have a metabolic change in our way of life. Amen, Lord, we want for You to have much possibility for the new man to come into full existence!

Being Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man

The only way that the one new man can be realized practically is not merely by getting together with saints from different backgrounds and cultures and doing our best to be one, but by our mind being renewed.

The one new man doesn’t come about by being corrected, adjusted, or taught, but by the Spirit permeating our mentality; the degree to which the Spirit has permeated our mentality is the degree to which we have the reality of the one new man in practicality.

When we contact the Lord through praying and pray-reading the word of God, we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind; however, when we live our daily life, we may be out of the spirit, and the renewing may not take place.

When we pray ourselves into the spirit, we’re being renewed; but when we’re not praying, we may not experience the renewing. We need to keep ourselves in the mingled spirit all the time, not only when we are praying and contacting the Lord.

We should not allow ourselves come out of the mingled spirit. How much we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind in all the matters of our daily life!

For example, in our relationships with one another, the husbands’ relationship to the wife, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. If we simply are with our wife the way we habitually have been, there’s no way for the Lord to have His Body, and there’s no way to see the practical existence of the one new man.

This doesn’t mean that we need to be adjusted in our behavior or be nicer to one another; this means that, for the practical existence of the one new man, we need to be transformed by being renewed in the spirit of our mind, so that we may become the same as Christ.

We need to daily put off the old man and put on the new man by drinking of the one Spirit; as we drink of the Spirit, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind in every area of our practical, daily life.

We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind not only for our personal or ethical behavior, but for the one new man to come into existence in practicality. Our concepts, ideas, opinions, feelings, desires, and yearnings need to be renewed, and this can happen only when we come to the Lord and open to Him, asking Him to saturate us with Himself.

When the Spirit saturates our mind, we have no more ordinances, and when our mind is possessed and saturated by the Spirit, we will not care for anything but Christ Himself, the one new man. When the Spirit has possessed and saturated our mind, we will not care for black, white, Chinese, Japanese, American, British, German, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, or Spanish – we will care only for the one new man.

We will realize that the church is the one new man, and we will give ourselves to the Lord to NOT be conformed to this age of division according to race, religion, opinion, culture, etc, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind to have the practical existence of the one new man.

Lord Jesus, we are here before You: we want that our mind would be fully opened to You. Come in and fill us up; come in and saturate, permeate, and possess our entire inward being. Lord, we want to be renewed in the spirit of our mind in all the things and activities of our daily living for the practical existence of the one new man. We don’t want to behave as we have habitually been behaving; we want to have a daily renewal of our mind for the one new man! Saturate us and possess us for the one new man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” chs. 8-9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Goal of the Lord’s Recovery – to Bring Forth the One New Man (2018 ICSC), week 2, Being Renewed in the Spirit of the Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # It is by our heart’s renewal / We may God in love pursue, / And in newness of the spirit / We may contact God anew. (Hymns #743)
  # In eternal ages purposed / That His wisdom be made known, / Was the Church, His hidden myst’ry, / Where the Son could make His home; / That the saints may all in spirit / Apprehend His boundlessness, / Know His love which passes knowledge, / All God’s fulness to possess. (Hymns #823)
  # Thy Spirit will me saturate / Every part will God permeate, / Deliv’ring me from the old man, / With all saints building for His plan. (Hymns #501)