Divine Life is in our Mingled Spirit: we need to Release our Spirit to Minister life

As believers in Christ and children of God, we have the eternal life of God in our mingled spirit: now we can experience life and minister life to other members of the Body of Christ.

The divine life we have received through regeneration is the processed and consummated Triune God in Christ as the Spirit dispensed into us. In our spirit we have the eternal life, and when we experience and enjoy Christ as life, this life is spreading into all the parts of our inner being to fill our whole being with life.

We need to daily enjoy Christ as life and experience Him as life so that we may be filled with life and even have a surplus of life to minister life to others. Our service to God in the church should always minister life.

In the church life there are many things to be taken care of, but our goal should not merely be to have a good coordination and arrangement but to minister life.

Whether we share something of what we enjoyed of Christ or we arrange the chairs in the meeting, whether we pick someone up at the airport or we play the guitar or piano in the meeting, whether we help with ushering or we call a hymn in the meeting, whether we do something “spiritual” or something practical in the meetings, in everything we need to minister life.

How do we know whether life is ministered as we serve? The Lord has given us all a sense of life within; when we listen to the Lord within and cooperate with Him, we will have a clear sense of whether life is ministered when we serve in the church.

The service is necessary for the practical church life – it is absolutely necessary for some to cook for the home meetings, for some arrangement to be done for the group meeting to take place, and for some coordination when it comes to where to meet and what to go through in the young people meetings, but in all these things our focus should be to supply life.

We may be assigned to clean the toilet or to do the dishes, but in everything we do we need to exercise our spirit and enjoy the Lord, take Him as our life, and learn to minister Him as life to others.

Oh, may our view and concept be changed from merely accomplishing something outwardly to ministering life in all our service in the church life!

We must Look to the Lord so that our Service becomes an Outlet for His Life

The church life is not merely a “society”; it is the household of faith, the house of the living God, and we all are God-men, believers in Christ who have God’s life in their spirit.

If the church were only for taking care of matters and practical things, and not for supplying life, the church would lose its nature and would be a society. There are many charities and societies and clubs that people can join to do good and philanthropical things, but the church is NOT one of those clubs.

The church is of life and is spiritual, but a society is like a business; the point of taking care of things in the church life is not doing a good job but ministering life to one another.

Of course, we should not be sloppy or not diligent in the things we serve in the church life; we should not do things incorrectly or in the wrong way, but we should be in fear and in trembling before the Lord as we serve so that our service would not just be for accomplishing things but for ministering life.

We cannot be content with just doing things in the church life; we must serve in such a way that others may receive the supply of life.

We need to be deeply impressed with this point and look to the Lord so that our service becomes an outlet for His life. We want to be delivered from mistakes, but the focus of such deliverance is not on doing a successful job but on the flowing out of life. Witness Lee, The Service for Building Up the House of God, p. 40

First, we need to come to the Lord and ask Him to give us a heart and spirit of service; then, we need to cooperate with Him and with the saints to serve in the church, having the aim of not merely accomplishing things but ministering life.

The Lord Jesus came to serve – He didn’t come to be served but to serve; however, the result of Him serving us is that we receive life, and we receive this life in abundance (John 10:10; 11:25; 1 John 1:2).

When we serve we need to learn from the Lord not merely to accomplish outward things but to be one with Him to minister life to others for their growth in life and further experience of Christ. We must really look to the Lord so that our service becomes an outlet for His life.

Whether at home or at work, whether at school or in the meeting with the saints, we need to live one spirit with the Lord, enjoying Him, experiencing Him, letting Him life in us, and learning to minister Christ as life to others.

The first beneficiary of our learning to minister life should be the ones closest to us: our spouse, our fellow classmates, our housemates, our workmates, and our friends. We need to practice that in everything we would allow the Lord as life to flow through us so that we may become an outlet for His life.

Lord Jesus, recover the serving life in which we all serve by ministering life to one another! Save us from focusing merely on accomplishing things or taking care of practical matters in the church life without the supply of life. Lord, thank You for coming to be our life and give us life abundantly! We want to cooperate with You by enjoying and experiencing You as life so that we may minister life to others as we serve in the church! Oh Lord, may our service become an outlet for Your life so that we may serve in such a way that others may receive the supply of life!

Divine Life is in our Mingled Spirit: we need to Release our Spirit to Minister life

What does it mean to “minister life”? What is this “life” that we minister, where is this life, and how can we minister life?

As believers in Christ, the life that we supply to others is in the Spirit – the Spirit is life, and life is in the Spirit; this Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and therefore the life of God is located, abides, and grows in our mingled spirit (see 1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17; Rom. 8:4).

What does it mean then to supply life to others? If we would supply the saints with life, we must exercise our spirit and release our spirit, for the divine life is in our mingled spirit (Rom. 7:6; 1:9). To release our spirit doesn’t necessarily mean that we “shout” and loudly praise the Lord; many times we release our spirit and thus minister life through a normal conversation with others.

If our spirit cannot be released, the divine life has no way to be released. We need to deal with many things in our being which are a hindrance to the release of the spirit. We may speak the truth in the Bible, but there may be no life ministered.

For the sake of the building up of the church, for the life-ministering service, we need to present ourselves to the Lord to give us whatever experiences are necessary so that our spirit may be released and the divine life would flow out of us without any hindrance.

Hallelujah, the divine life lives, abides, grows, and is located in our mingled spirit, and whenever our spirit is released, those around us receive life!

We need to see the distinction between life and moral character (see Rom. 7:21-23; 8:2, 11): many Christians speak of being good and moral, doing good deeds, and having a good behavior, but they don’t speak of the divine life in the word of God (John 1:4).

As believers in Christ we should definitely NOT be rude, crude, wild, or base, but there’s much more to the divine life than just good behavior or being a good person. In order not to hinder others from receiving the divine life, we must do good deeds and have a good moral character; however, good deeds and moral character do NOT necessarily mean that the life of God is expressed through us.

We may be irreproachable and commendable in our service and yet express merely a good character, a human perfection, and good human virtues, but these are not the life of God.

We need to have a keen discernment in our life with the Lord between “good” and “life” – do we merely live out a good moral character, or do we live by the life of God which is expressed in us through such a behavior?

We need to discern between humility that is cultivated through our culture and training, and the humility that is Jesus living again.

We shouldn’t seek more teachings and doctrines to improve our family life and help us do things in a better way or have an improved behavior and living; rather, we need to live by the Spirit, walk according to the spirit, and released the life of God in our spirit as we live one spirit with the Lord.

If we live out merely a good character with an upright behavior, whenever others touch us, they touch death and not life. Every contact with the saints in the church life involves either death or life; we need to repent of the many times others touched us and received death, and we need to see that life is in our mingled spirit and therefore we should release our spirit to minister life to others.

May every contact we have with the saints be a touch of life for the supply of life!

Lord Jesus, thank You for our mingled spirit: the Spirit as life is mingled with our spirit, and now the life of God is located, abides, and grows in our mingled spirit! Hallelujah! We want to learn to live according to the spirit and walk by the Spirit so that we may release our spirit for the supply of life. Save us, Lord, from merely having a good behavior and a moral character without the supply of life. May our living be Christ living in us and may our contact with the saints and with all men be a ministry of life for the dispensing of God into man as life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from The Service for Building Up the House of God, ch. 4 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 8 / msg. 8, A Life-ministering Service.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Release my spirit! ‘Tis for this I yearn, / That self may bind my spirit nevermore; / With all the saints I’d mingle in Thy life, / And all Thou art enjoy forevermore. (Hymns #845)
  # Life is God the Father / In Christ Jesus as the Spirit / Flowing out and coming into us. / He’s not just a teaching, / Or a creed or a dead doctrine, / But the processed Triune God, glorious! (Song on God as life)
  # Channels of life are we, / Allowing God to flow! / Through us and out of us / That others life may know! (Song on being a channel of life)