To Exercise our Spirit is to Set our Mind on the Spirit and Discern Spirit from Soul

For us to live a life of godliness in the church life for the expression of God in man, we need to exercise our spirit, that is, we need to set our mind on the spirit and therefore know the inner sense of life and peace, and we need to discern our spirit from our soul. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we are special people, for we’re not like everyone else; we have God in Christ as the Spirit joined to our spirit, and we are born of God to be children of God in our spirit (Rom. 8:16; John 1:12-13; 3:6).

We have been born of God in our spirit, and there is now another person living and dwelling in us; God Himself lives in us.

Others may not see God or feel Him, but we see Him with our spiritual eyes, and we feel Him living, moving, speaking, and doing many things in us.

The life we live as Christians is a life according to the inner sense in our spirit; we are learning to live according to the spirit, for our mingled spirit – the divine Spirit mingled with our spirit – is our real person.

Day by day we believers in Christ remain open to the Lord so that He can dispense Himself into us.

He didn’t just come in us and that’s it; He is constantly dispensing Himself with all that He is into us.

We cooperate with Him to receive His divine dispensing by exercising our spirit.

For our entire life, we have exercised either our body, which is the flesh, or our soul, which is the self.

As we grew up and learned many things, our self was developed, and our flesh was improved or built up.

But now as believers in Christ, we are learning not to live according to the flesh in on the self but live by contacting the Lord, depending on Him, and living one spirit with Him.

However, this requires our exercise, even our forcing ourselves.

We may go through a hard situation, and nothing around us seems to help us or give us any encouragement; in such a situation, we need to force ourselves to turn to our spirit, that is, set our mind on our spirit.

Our mind can be set either on the things or people around us or on our spirit.

May we choose to set our mind on our spirit again and again.

May we choose to live a life of godliness by exercising our spirit to receive the divine dispensing.

When we receive and enjoy the divine dispensing, we are inwardly supplied and nourished, and the inner man is strengthened; then, our living outwardly will be the expression of the inner man, the Lord Himself living in us.

May we learn to turn to our spirit again and again, remain in our spirit throughout the day, and live one spirit with the Lord in all things.

To Exercise our Spirit is to Set our Mind on the Spirit and Live by the Inner Sense of Life and Peace

What does it mean for us to exercise our spirit and where can we see this matter in the Bible?

In 1 Tim. 4:7-8 we are told to exercise ourselves unto godliness, for this is profitable both for this age and the next age.

To exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit.

What does it mean to exercise our spirit?

Mal. 2:15-16 encourages us to pay attention to our spirit and take heed to our spirit.

When we pay attention to our spirit, we exercise our spirit.

Rom. 8:6 clearly says that the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

To exercise our spirit is to set our mind on the spirit.

We are where our mind is. When our mind is set on a certain sport, our whole being is into that sport.

When our mind is set on doing a certain activity or going to a certain place, that’s where our whole being is.

If our mind thinks in a negative way concerning someone, we do not like that person.

Our experience many times is that we allow our mind to think what it wants, be focused on what it prefers, and wander around a lot.

Sometimes in a span of five minutes, our mind does a trip around the world in its thoughts.

If we don’t control our mind, we can wander in our imagination all over the place within a short time.

We need to learn to direct our mind to the spirit. We need to learn to set our mind on our spirit.

This means that we need to learn to contact the Lord by exercising our spirit to pray, call on the name of the Lord, read His word, fellowship with Him, sing, praise, worship Him, and speak His word.

There are many ways for us to set our mind on the spirit.

When we set our mind on the spirit, we have the inner sense of life and peace, the sense of strength, satisfaction, rest, release, liveliness, watering, brightness, and comfort.

When our mind is set on our spirit, we feel watered within, and there’s a sense of being strengthened and comforted.

But when our mind is set on the flesh, we have an inner sense of death, and therefore we have a sense of weakness, emptiness, uneasiness, restlessness, depression, dryness, darkness, and pain.

Whenever we sense any weakness and emptiness within, when we feel restless and depressed, when we feel we’re dry and in darkness, we need to realize that this is the sense of death, so we should set our mind on the spirit.

People in the world experience such a sense all the time but do not have a way to deal with it or get out of it; positive thinking and self-help do not help.

We believers in Christ need to exercise our spirit by setting our mind on our spirit so that we can enjoy life and peace, and we need to live according to the inner sense of life and peace.

Our Christian life is not according to the standard of right and wrong; it is a life according to the spirit, and we know the spirit by the inner sense of life and peace (Rom. 8:6,16; 9:1; 2 Cor. 13:14).

We all can testify that when we accidentally or knowingly turned to our spirit and our mind was set on the spirit, we enjoyed life and peace, and we were filled with life, light, comfort, satisfaction, and rest.

May we daily choose to turn to our spirit and set our mind on the spirit so that we may develop and live according to the inner sense of life and peace.

When we exercise our spirit by setting our mind on the spirit and therefore live by the inner sense of life and peace, we will behave how we ought to in the house of God, the church of the living God.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn to exercise our spirit. We choose to set our mind on the spirit. We want to pay attention to our spirit and take heed to our spirit. Save us from living in the flesh and therefore setting our mind on the flesh. Oh Lord Jesus, may we daily choose to turn to You and set our mind on the spirit so that we may enjoy life and peace. Hallelujah, our Christian life is not according to the standard of right and wrong but according to the spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to know the spirit by the inner sense of life and peace. May we turn to our spirit whenever we feel that there’s weakness, uneasiness, restlessness, depression, dryness, darkness, and pain within. May we run to our spirit and set our mind not on our flesh but on our spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to live according to the inner sense of life and peace so that we may enjoy strength, satisfaction, rest, release, liveliness, watering, brightness, and comfort!

To Exercise our Spirit is to Discern our Spirit from our Soul in our Daily Living

In Heb. 4:12 we are told that the word of God is living and operative, even sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Even though we believers in Christ have Christ living in us, and we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), we still live so much in our soul.

Actually, it is difficult for us to discern our soul from our spirit.

For example, it is easy for a husband and a wife to just talk freely about a brother or a sister in the church life, and it is easy for them to commit a sin by gossiping about others’ situations, speaking negatively of the saints.

Toward others outside, they may exercise restraint and turn to the Lord, but among themselves, it is easy to have no restraint. Oh, Lord.

We need to learn to fan our spirit into flame and set our mind on the spirit in our daily life, even in marriage life as we converse about things and people.

We need to exercise our spirit and discern our spirit from our soul in our daily living.

May we not let our mind be set on the flesh but rather, may we direct it to be set on the spirit.

This is a habit we need to build up in our daily life.

When our mind is set on the flesh, we have death and spread death; when our mind is set on the spirit, we have life and peace, and we give life to others.

The word of God is able to discern our spirit from our soul; it can divide the soul from the spirit, being able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Many times our thoughts are deceiving; we may think that our thoughts are OK, but if we exercise our spirit to pray over God’s word, we will discern that our thoughts are evil, for behind our thoughts there is an evil intention.

May we not stand with our thoughts but with our spirit.

May we come to God’s word to pray over the word day by day so that the Lord may grant us the discernment and we would choose to remain in our spirit.

The strategy of Satan is to mix our spirit up with our soul, for in such a mixing, the spirit loses and the soul wins.

Christianity is filled with things of the spirit and things of the soul, and the things of the soul always win.

May we learn to exercise our spirit and therefore discern our spirit from our soul.

If we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and pray over His word, we will realize that the world with all its attractions and distractions is not our friend but rather, they are passing away, and the real life and peace with the eternal things are in our human spirit.

We need to be spiritual men (1 Cor. 2:14-15). We must see the difference between the spirit and the soul.

The soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he’s not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually.

But the spiritual man discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one. Oh, Lord!

There’s no possibility for a soulish man to know God, but the spiritual man knows God and can discern all things.

May we not be soulish men but spiritual men, men who are of the spirit, men who know the things of God.

We should always be on the alert to discern and deny anything that is not of the spirit but of the soul, the self (Matt. 16:25; Luke 9:25).

By the Lord’s mercy and through our setting our mind on the spirit, we need to all the time keep our spirit separate from our soul (Heb. 4:12; 1 Thes. 5:23).

This means that, whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we do and say must be in the spirit; everything that God is to us is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22).

Day by day we need to fan our spirit into flame and discern the things of the spirit and of the soul.

As we set our mind on the spirit, there will be an inner sense regarding the things of the soul, which are of death, and the things of the spirit, which are of life.

May we remain in the spirit all the time by exercising our spirit, employing our spirit, and using our spirit all the time.

One thing related to the soul and the flesh is that it is easy to react to things; many times when we react and do things or say things quickly, that is the flesh.

We need to learn to stop our inner being and not react or speak things quickly; rather, we need to contact the Lord inwardly and walk according to the spirit.

There is an inner battle in us between the spirit and the soul; the soul is ready to react and do things quickly, but the spirit is one with the Lord, always filled with life and peace.

May we learn to conduct ourselves in the house of God by exercising our spirit all the time and in all things.

Lord Jesus, we want to exercise our spirit and have our spirit divided from our soul. Shine on us through Your living word, dear Lord, so that our spirit may be divided from our soul and we would discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Oh Lord, we choose to set our mind on our spirit and come to You in Your word to receive Your shining. Expose the enemy’s strategy to always mix up our spirit with our soul. Keep us in our spirit. Keep us turning to our spirit. May we always consider before You whether something we are about to say or do is of the spirit or of the soul. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to learn to fan our spirit into flame and set our mind on the spirit. We want to always follow our spirit and walk in all things according to our spirit! Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us in our spirit today! Live in us today. Be expressed through us in our godly living as we exercise our spirit throughout the day!

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,” pp. 185-187, 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.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – To set our mind on the spirit, a portion from, The Spirit with Our Spirit, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
  – Exercising Our Spirit to Contact the Reality of the Bible and to Know Christ Practically, article via, Living to Him.
  – Learning to discern our spirit from our soul, a portion from, The Fulfillment of God’s Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee.
  – Receive the Word with Faith to Get Ready, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – What is it to Exercise Our Spirit? Read more via, Radio Newsletters – The Hearing of Faith.
  – What Is the Difference Between the Soul and Spirit? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The mingled spirit – the key to the Christian life, article by Ron Kangas via, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Now He must have our cooperation. / We must set our mind upon the Son. / We must turn away from all that leads astray, / Till our mind is set on Him each day. / Lord, our human spirit now contains You. / Still Your purpose in us You would do; / If our wandering mind would leave old thoughts behind, / Then Your life and peace in it we’ll find. (Hymns #1193 stanzas 4-5)
  – Minding flesh no longer, / I’ll the spirit mind; / Self-will never follow, / But the Spirit’s find. / Christ within empow’rs me / Spiritual to be! / E’en my body quick’ning / By His pow’r in me. / Spirit with the spirit / Witnesseth in one, / I’m of God begotten, / Heir with Christ the Son. (Hymns #594 stanzas 3-5)
  – Lord, teach us to discern the spirit / From soul that we Thyself may know; / Thou art the Spirit in our spirit, / In oneness mingled with us so. / Lord, teach us to discern the spirit, / The soul-life ever to deny, / And ever follow Thee in spirit, / Thyself, the Spirit, to apply. (Hymns #746 stanzas 1-2)