To Exercise our Spirit to Live Christ in our Daily Life is to Exercise unto Godliness

As believers in Christ, we need to fan our spirit into flame so that we may exercise ourselves unto godliness; may we be those who exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen!

This week we have been enjoying the matter of the way for us to conduct ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.

The way we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God is by exercising ourselves unto godliness.

As lovers of the Lord and pursuers of Christ, we need to be those who love the word of God and respect the headship of Christ in all things.

Then, we need to take care of the healthy teaching, abiding in the word of God to receive the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy.

The mystery of godliness is great, for it is not only Christ who is God manifested in the flesh but even more, the church – we, the believers in Christ as the members of the Body of Christ – is the manifestation of God in the flesh.

Godliness is a mystery, yet it is so real; the truth of God’s eternal economy is according to godliness, which is God manifested in man.

To live a godly life is not merely to live a life that is pious by trying our best to express God.

Godliness is a manifestation of the inner life within us. As we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, we receive and enjoy the divine dispensing.

The divine dispensing, the dispensing of what God is into us, produces a certain kind of effect: we spontaneously live out Christ!

We believers in Christ should pursue godliness, that is, we should pursue living a life that manifests God in our daily living.

In His economy, God comes into us to dispense Himself into us; the result of this is that we live out Christ by living a life of godliness.

When we all do this, when we all live Christ, we become the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh, the great mystery of godliness.

May we daily exercise ourselves unto godliness. May we exercise our spirit day by day, for the mystery of God is with our spirit.

Our Christian life should be a life of godliness, a life that comes out of God’s dispensing of Himself into us.

This depends on our exercise; we need to exercise our spirit day by day, in both big and small things, in both difficult and easy things, so that we may contact the Lord.

To exercise means that we do not just sit down and wait for the Spirit to move us but that we take the initiative to contact the Lord.

To exercise our spirit means that we set our mind on the spirit in all things and we discern the spirit from the soul.

May we all choose to live in our mingled spirit, not in our soul, and may we set our mind not on the flesh (where death is) but on the spirit (where we enjoy life and peace).

When we exercise our spirit and live in spirit, spontaneously we exercise ourselves unto godliness, and we manifest God corporately.

God has given us a Spirit of Power, Love, and Sobermindedness for us to Fan Into Flame!

In order for us to prove that the exercise unto godliness is the exercise of the spirit, we need to read 2 Tim. 1:7.

Here Paul tells us that God has given us a spirit that is strong, loving, and sober.

On the negative side, we need to refuse the profane and old-womanish myths; on the negative side, we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness.

Such an exercise is like gymnastics; we need to actively exercise ourselves unto godliness.

How do we exercise ourselves unto godliness? This exercise has to do with our spirit, for godliness is Christ lived out of us to be the manifestation of God, and Christ is in our spirit.

Christ as the Spirit lives and dwells in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Tim. 4:22).

For us to exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit so that Christ can live in us.

We need to fan our spirit into flame; the gift of God is in us, it is our mingled spirit, and we need to fan our spirit into flame.

2 Tim. 1:6-7 is a portion that Paul wrote according to his experience.

This is not a doctrine. God did not give us a spirit of cowardice; rather, God has given us a spirit of power, of love, and of sobermindedness.

Our spirit is in the center of our being, surrounded by the three parts of our soul. Our will, emotion, and mind surround our spirit.

The spirit that God gave us is of power (related to our will), of love (related to our emotion), and of sober-mindedness (related to our mind).

God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice for us to be discouraged and give up when we fail; rather, He gave us a spirit that spread into our mind, emotion, and will, a spirit that we must fan into flame.

When we exercise our spirit, our will is involved; our will needs to be powerful so that we exercise our spirit.

When we exercise our spirit, our emotion is involved; our emotion needs to be loving toward the Lord.

Our mind is also involved, for our mind should not be foggy or cloudy but very clear when we exercise our spirit.

May we fan into flame the gift of God by exercising our spirit day by day to exercise ourselves unto godliness.

For us to really live a godly life, for us to live even the same as the Lord Jesus did, we need to fan our spirit into flame.

There’s fire in our spirit; the divine fire has come into us to burn in us, but we need to fan into flame the gift of God given to us.

May we be those who always exercise our God-given spirit. Just as we exercise our two legs to walk and run, so we need to exercise our spirit to run the Christian race.

If we don’t exercise our hands and our legs, they will lose their function; similarly, if we don’t exercise our spirit, the function of our spirit will be diminished.

May we realize that God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice but rather, he gave us a great supply for our Christian life: a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

We have this great capital, this great capacity in our being; we simply need to use it by exercising our spirit day by day.

As long as we exercise our God-given spirit, we have power, love, and sober-mindedness with a clear sky.

We need to declare that we’re strong, we’re loving, and we’re clear, for the gift God gave us is empowering us and enabling us to be strong, loving, and clear!

The best way for us to fan into flame the gift of God is to pray.

When we pray, we are fanning into flame the gift of God, our spirit.

The more we pray, the more our spirit is burning, and the more we exercise ourselves unto godliness.

Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us a spirit of power and of love and of sobermidedness. Hallelujah, we do not have a spirit of cowardice to shrink back but a spirit that is full of power, love, and clarity! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to contact You today. We want to fan our spirit into flame by calling on Your name and by praying to fellowship with You. May our will be powerful, may our emotion be loving, and may our mind be clear as we exercise our spirit! Hallelujah for the God-given gift, our regenerated spirit! Praise the Lord, we have a great capital and an amazing capacity to contact God by means of our spirit! Hallelujah, when we exercise our spirit we are strong, we are loving, and we are clear! Amen, Lord, keep us exercising our spirit today in all things so that we may exercise ourselves unto godliness to live Christ!

To Exercise Ourselves unto Godliness is to Exercise our Spirit to Live Christ in our Daily Life

Godliness is not a behaviour or an outward living that we put on when we are before others or in the church; godliness is a spontaneous living, an issue of the exercise of our spirit in our daily life.

To exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 4:7b; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:12, 16; 1 Cor. 14:4, 12).

Godliness is not something apart from Christ; godliness is Christ living in us, and living and godly life is to live Christ.

How can we live Christ? We need to exercise ourselves unto godliness by exercising our spirit to live Christ in our daily life.

We need to ask ourselves, who is the one living in us? Are we the ones living, or is Christ living in us?

Are we the ones speaking, reacting to things, exchanging words with our spouse, and doing things, or is Christ living in us?

By default, the old man is the one who lives in us and is expressed through us, and naturally, the self is our person, being expressed and manifested in all things.

But as believers in Christ, we need to learn to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and let Christ live in us in our daily life.

This sounds so simple and easy, but when it comes to our daily living, it requires a lot of exercise.

When we wake up in the morning, we need to contact the Lord and be in His presence.

Then, as we do this and that, as we take care of the things we need to do day by day, we need to continue to exercise our spirit to live Christ.

This is a daily exercise, and we can never stop exercising our spirit.

The key to everything in God’s economy is in us; everything depends on the exercise of our human spirit.

When we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and read His word, we are inwardly nourished with spirit and life (John 6:63) and outwardly have godliness, the living out of Christ.

Inwardly, we need to be nourished and supplied with the words of this life; outwardly, there needs to be an expression of the inner life.

However, this does not come naturally; we don’t “slip into our spirit” by default in the morning, and we don’t live in spirit just like that, without us doing anything.

Rather, we need to be reminded again and again to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord in all things and about all things.

We need to exercise ourselves unto godliness, that is, exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life.

Whether we go through suffering or not, we need to exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life.

In good times and in times of loss, in joy or in sorrow, in ups and downs, in all things we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness by exercising our spirit to live Christ.

May we never consider that we have arrived, for this morning we exercised our spirit and at lunch we read something of the Lord’s word in spirit, so now in the evening we are in spirit.

As long as we live in the flesh, as long as we have the self and the old man, we need to keep doing spiritual gymnastics by exercising ourselves unto godliness, that is, by exercising our spirit.

As we call on the name of the Lord to breathe Him in, we are inwardly supplied and nourished, and He speaks to us, leads us, and supplies us.

As we read and pray over His word, fellowship with the Lord, and abide in fellowship with Him throughout the day, we exercise our spirit to live Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

May we be such ones today.

May we learn to exercise our spirit and keep exercising our spirit all throughout the day and even our whole life until we remain in the organic union with the Lord all the time and He returns to rapture us.

Lord Jesus, we exercise ourselves unto godliness so that we may express You in our daily living. We exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, we open to You and we call on Your name. O Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus! Fill us with Yourself. Nourish us with what You are. Dispense Your element into our being and transfuse Yourself into us. We exercise our spirit to contact You and live You out. Amen, Lord, live in us today. Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through us. May it be You who lives in us today. We just exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You in all things. May Christ live in us and may Christ be expressed through us for the building up of the church. May our daily living be the expression of God. Amen, Lord, bring us into a deeper experience of exercising our spirit so that we may live Christ in our daily life for the manifestation of God in the flesh, the mystery of godliness!

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 the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 5, entitled, How to Conduct Ourselves in the House of God— Exercising Ourselves unto Godliness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – This outline of the healthy words, / In faith and love we’ll hold; / All different teaching, fruitless talk, / Reject with spirit bold. / Oh, healthful teaching, wholesome words: / The truth of godliness! / Oh, good deposit, common faith, / And life of holiness! / Lord, make us now those faithful men / Who pass on what we’ve heard; / Make us examples of the saints / In spirit, faith, and word. (Hymns #1285 stanzas 4-6)
  – In no other way could we be / Sanctified and share Thy vict’ry; / Thus only spiritual we’ll be / And touch the life of glory. / Thy Spirit will me saturate / Every part will God permeate, / Deliv’ring me from the old man, / With all saints building for His plan. / Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity / Lives in me my all to be. (Hymns #501 stanzas 6-7 and chorus)
  – Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / In all things Thy will be done; / I but a transparent vessel / To make visible the Son. (Hymns #403 stanza 1)