Christ today is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality, coming to us to reach us, touch us, unite Himself with us, saturate us, mingle us with Himself, fill us, constitute us, and build us up into His habitation (see 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45).
The Spirit is not “a power” or “a ghost”, but Christ Himself as the embodiment of the Triune God coming to man to be received and enjoyed by man.
We as believers in Christ need to know the secret of God’s economy, the secret of our Christian life, and the secret of the church life, which is: the Spirit with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). If we don’t practice being one spirit with the Lord, we are not in the enjoyment and the experience of the Lord and His full salvation.
God passed through a long process to become a life-giving Spirit, and now He is very intimate with us, bringing us into an organic union with Himself, even a romantic union. The secret for us to enjoy all that Christ is, has, and has obtained is the Spirit with our spirit.
Lord, Thank You for coming into us as the Spirit – now we are joined to You as one spirit! Lord, keep us one spirit with You today! No matter what we do, where we are, and what we say, keep us one spirit with You!
What is “The Spirit with our spirit”?
In John 7:39 there’s a particular utterance concerning the Spirit, “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but the Spirit as the all-inclusive life-giving compound Spirit was not yet.
God went through a process by first becoming a man and then becoming a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ became the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit.
On our side, our spirit also has passed through a process. First, our spirit was created by God (Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27) and it became fallen and deadened through Adam’s fall (Eph. 2:1). Christ redeemed our spirit and quickened it, enlivening it with His life in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:10).
When we were born again we were regenerated in our spirit by God’s Spirit with the divine life, and now the Spirit is with our spirit (Rom. 8:16) testifying that we are children of God (John 1:12-13).
This is a great miracle, that God became one with man as the Spirit with our spirit, and now man can enjoy all God is and all God has by remaining one spirit with the Lord! So “the Spirit with our spirit” is actually the consummated Spirit with the believers regenerated spirit.
The Spirit with our spirit is the Secret of God’s Organic Salvation
Paul learned the secret to live Christ – the Spirit with his spirit. These two spirits working together are the skillfulness, the secret, of all the spiritual things, especially of all the aspects of God’s organic salvation.
Regeneration is only the beginning of our Christian life, and the main experience that we believers should have today is the experience of Christ as our salvation. After being regenerated by God with His divine life, we now enjoy a daily salvation, even a moment-by-moment salvation; we are much more saved in His life (Rom. 5:10).
God’s salvation is simply a Person, Christ Himself, coming to us as the Spirit to mingle Himself with us, saturate us, and make us the same as He is as the corporate Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem. Being saved doesn’t mean only being saved from negative things, but even more being saved in God’s life by enjoying Christ and experiencing Him.
As we enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit with our spirit, all circumstances, all things, and all environments work out for our salvation (see Phil. 1:19). Our greatest sin is not to practice to remain in this organic union. We need to always seek to be one spirit with the Lord, so that we and the Lord would be one.
This is the secret to our organic salvation: the Spirit with our spirit! All the sections of God’s organic salvation – regeneration, feeding, sanctification, renewing, transformation, building, conformation, and glorification – are experienced by us in this one spirit with the Lord!
The generating Spirit in our spirit regenerates us, giving us authority to be the children of God, begotten of God (John 3:6; 1:12-13; Rom. 8:10).
This is the source and the base for all the experiences of Christ – our regeneration, the Spirit of life regenerating our quickened spirit. Christ came into us as the Spirit to distribute Himself into us vitally and profusely so that He can be life to our entire being and we would be constituted with Him.
Hallelujah, we are now children of God, born of God with His divine life and nature. Our spirit is life, and we are now different people: we are God-men! We have God in us, and we are part of the divine species, being re-gene-rated with the divine genes to be children of God. Hallelujah!
The nourishing Spirit feeds us with the spiritual milk of the Word so that we may grow in life unto salvation (see Eph. 5:29; 1 Cor. 3:2, 6; 1 Pet. 2:2-3).
After regeneration, our spirit is being cherished and nourished by Christ, and we long for the guileless milk of the word so that by it we may grow unto salvation.
Christ loves us, cherishes us, and as the Spirit He nourishes our spirit with milk (initially) for our growth in life. The most important thing for a new born babe is to eat and drink so that he may grow! We grow unto salvation by drinking of the milk in the Word and by drinking the Spirit through calling on the Lord’s name.
The sanctifying Spirit from our spirit sanctifies us with the nature of God to make us holy unto God.
Our spirit has been captivated by Christ, and now we have the Spirit in our spirit imparting the divine and holy nature of God into us. We were chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love (Eph. 1:4), and daily Christ is sanctifying us and cleansing us by the washing of the water in the Word (Eph. 5:26-27).
God will fully sanctify and preserve our whole being – spirit, soul, and body – by saturating us with His holy element through His Spirit in our spirit (1 Thes. 5:23).
Today we need to present the members of our body – our whole being – to God as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification (Rom. 6:19), since we are captives of Christ, captivated by Him, being lead by Him in His triumphant procession, manifesting the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place (2 Cor. 2:12-14).
The renewing Spirit in our spirit renews us that we may put on the new man through the breaking of the cross.
As the Spirit with our spirit spreads into our mind, we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23-24), and we put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.
The Holy Spirit renews us (Titus 3:5), arranging all things in our environment for our good. All things work together for good to those who love God, to renew them by washing away and putting away anything of the old man through the breaking of the cross, and adding the element of God to make them the new man.
The transforming Spirit in our spirit transforms us into the glorious image of Christ for His expression. As we behold Him with an unveiled face, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
We are not being conformed to this age but we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect (Rom. 12:2).
The result of our transformation is that we are filled with Christ to express Him in His glorious image. Today we should seek to be filled not with wine or anything of the world, but filled in spirit (Eph. 5:18).
The building Spirit in our spirit builds us into the house of God and the Body of Christ for Their dwelling. As we eat, drink, and are filled with Christ, we are being built up by the Spirit into the house of God, the dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16).
God desires to dwell in man in a corporate way, and for the building up of God’s dwelling place the Lord is one with our spirit and we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). The place where the church is built up is our spirit! Our spirit is filled with Christ and possessed by Christ, and in spirit we together become God’s house, God’s dwelling place.
The maturing Spirit in our spirit conforms us to the image of Christ!
Christ is the firstborn Son of God as the model, the prototype, of God’s sons, and we are the sons of God enriched in spirit with Christ, being conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29-29).
He foreknew us and predestinated us to be God’s many sons, those conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son, by living daily in the organic union with the Lord. When we live one spirit with the Lord, the maturing Spirit in our spirit is conforming us to the image of the Firstborn Son of God, so that Christ would be formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
The sealing Spirit in our spirit saturates us with and brings us into the glory of God for our glorification.
Our spirit is exulting with Christ, and the sealing Spirit is continually sealing us to imprint the image of God onto our being and bring us fully into glory (Eph. 1:13). We were sealed in the Spirit of God unto the day of the redemption of our bodies, unto the day of the glorification of our body (Eph. 4:30).
Today we enjoy the all-inclusive compound Spirit as the pledge, the foretaste of our full taste (2 Cor. 1:22), but we stand in grace today and boast because of the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2). The sealing Spirit in our spirit will fully bring us into the glory of God – from within to without!
Hallelujah! Praise You Lord for becoming the Spirit and joining Yourself with our spirit to be one spirit with us. Keep us enjoying all the wonderful functions of the Spirit with our spirit. Nourish us in our spirit, sanctify us, renew us, transform us, build us up, mature us, and even glorify us as we live one spirit with You today. Lord, save us much more in Your life. Organically save us today until we are fully matured, transformed, and glorified, being brought together into Your glory to express You! Lord, keep us one spirit with You today!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: A sharing by brother Dick Taylor and portions in, The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—“the Spirit Himself with Our Spirit,” (ch. 1), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, “The Completing Ministry of Paul“, week 4 entitled, The Spirit with our spirit.
- Similar sharing: the secret of the Christian life: living in the mingled spirit (via holdingtotruth).
- Hymns on this topic:
# He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. / Our life is a life that’s in organic union. / As a branch is in the vine, / Grafted, His life and mine intertwine. / Lord, I am joined to You!
# Now the Triune God has come to dwell within / As the wonderful Spirit in us. / We are mingled with the Lord, we’re one with Him / As the life-giving Spirit in us.
# God is in Christ to be my supply, / God as the Spirit nourisheth me; / If upon Christ in spirit I feed, / Filled with His life I’ll be.
As always, a blessing to read your post. It made me think of one of the most important sentences I had ever read: We do not study the Scriptures for knowledge only, but mainly for life-impartation!
I love this statement. It reminds me of what the Lord Jesus said in John 5:39, "You search the Scriptures, thinking that in them you will find eternal life" (it's good to search the Scriptures, to read the Bible) "but you don't come to Me that you may receive life" (we need to come to the Lord as we read the Bible).
We read a LOT of things during the day….but the Bible is something else. We need to come to the Lord as we read His Word, keeping ourselves open to Him. We even need to be one spirit with Him – that's the secret! And then, we will receive LIFE! Not just knowledge, but life, the divine life.