For us to exercise our spirit, we must deal with the parts of our soul surrounding our spirit so that we may have a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness, and we need to rejoice in the Lord and set our mind on the spirit to enjoy life and peace.
Hallelujah for our mingled spirit, the key to receiving the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity!
Our God, the God who created the heavens and the earth, has an eternal economy in which He wants to dispense all that He is and has done into us, His chosen people.
However, God is Spirit; the nature of His essence is Spirit.
Even more, in order for Him to be dispensed into man, He went through a process; God became a man like us, lived a perfect human life on earth, died an all-inclusive and all-terminating death on the cross, and resurrected.
In resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit so that He may dispense Himself into us, those who believe into Him.
Now everyone who hears the gospel and opens to the Lord, repents, and believes into Him, receives the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
God’s desire in His economy is to dispense all that He is and has into our being so that He may be our life and life supply and, from us, He would dispense Himself further into many other human beings.
We as believers in Christ need to know how to receive and remain under the constant divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow of the river of water of life flowing from eternity into time and into our being.
God the Father is love as the source, Christ the Son is the grace as the coming out of the Father, and God the Spirit is the fellowship to transmit all that God is into our being (2 Cor. 13;14).
How can we receive and enjoy God’s dispensing, and what is the key to us both receiving and flowing out the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity?
The key is our spirit, our human spirit who has been regenerated by God with His life and nature to be indwelt by Him.
Our spirit is a mingled spirit.
We need to know our spirit, turn to our spirit, set our mind on our spirit, and walk according to the Spirit by the exercise of our spirit.
When we exercise our spirit, we receive the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and we also become a channel of this dispensing into others for their growth in life and their enjoyment of Christ.
Day by day, beginning from the morning, we need to open our being to the Lord and fan our spirit into flame so that we may be under God’s dispensing and be a channel for His divine dispensing into many others.
Deal with the Parts of our Soul to have a Spirit of Power and of Love and of Sobermindedness
One very practical way for us to exercise our spirit is to deal with the parts of our soul surrounding our spirit, that is, with our mind, emotion, and will (1 Pet. 3:4).
Our soul needs to be established by the Lord (Acts 14:22); our mind, emotion, and will need the Lord’s establishing and dealing.
We need to be established by the Lord in our mind so that we may know and understand the Lord and the things concerning Him (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 3:10).
We need to be established in our emotion so that we may love the Lord and have a heart for the Lord’s interest (Mark 12:30; Rom. 16:4).
We need to be established by the Lord in our will so that we may be strong to remain with the Lord and do the things that please Him (Acts 11:23; Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 4:1). Amen!
2 Tim. 1:7 says that God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.
![And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength. Mark 12:30 For who has known the mind of the Lord and will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. 2:16 To walk worthily of the Lord to please [Him] in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and growing by the full knowledge of God. Col. 1:10](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/And-you-shall-love-the-Lord-your-God-from-your-whole-heart-and-from-your-whole-soul-and-from-your-whole-mind-and-from-your-whole-strength-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength. Mark 12:30 For who has known the mind of the Lord and will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. 2:16 To walk worthily of the Lord to please [Him] in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and growing by the full knowledge of God. Col. 1:10")
God gave us a wonderful gift: our spirit, which is now mingled with the Lord as the Spirit.
However, in order for the spirit to come out in a proper way as we exercise our spirit, we need to have a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness.
We need to deal with the parts of our soul surrounding our spirit so that our spirit may be proper when it is released.
First, our will has to be subdued by the spirit in order to be submissive to the Lord and strong for Him.
We need to have first a spirit of power; our will needs to be subdued so that it may be submissive to the Lord in our spirit.
Sometimes we may say that a person is strong in his will; in a sense, we’re correct, but in another sense, this is not correct, for that person is stubborn or hard in his will.
We have a strong will and it is good to have a strong will when our will is submissive to the Lord.
For example, when someone is willing to lay down his life for the Lord, when someone is being martyred for Him, he has a strong will, for his will is strong and powerful under the control of the Lord in our spirit.
When our will is subdued and becomes submissive to the spirit, our will becomes strong and powerful, and we truly have a spirit of power.
However, this needs to be balanced by a spirit of love.
When we have a powerful spirit, it will be easy for us to be cold toward others or the situations around us, and we may even criticize them.
But when we have a spirit of love, when our emotions are balanced by the Lord and made one with His emotions, we will love others with the Lord as love.
Even though our will is submissive to the Lord, we still need to be balanced by a spirit of love; our spirit needs to be both of power and of love.
We see this in the Lord Jesus; when He was on earth, His will was submissive to the spirit, and He was obedient to the Father.
However, the Lord Jesus in His living and work was also balanced by a spirit of love, for even though He had a strong spirit, He also had a spirit of love, and He loved and was compassionate toward those around Him.
The Lord had a strong spirit for God and His interest, but toward the sinners and sick people around Him, His spirit was full of love and sympathy.
Our emotion needs to be balanced by the Lord, attuned to His emotion, so that we may love what He loves, hate what He hates, and prefer what He prefers.
When we have a spirit of power and of love, we still need to have a spirit of sobermindedness; love alone can cause us to be foolish and blind, and it may even bring us into darkness.
So we need to be balanced so that we don’t love foolishly but clearly, properly, and soberly with a sound mind.
This is why we need to come to the Word of God and have our mind renewed by the truth in God’s Word.
Our mind needs to be renewed so that it is sober, not wild, wandering around, and unrestrained.
We need to have a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness so that we may be balanced in our being and have a proper exercise of our spirit.
To deal with our spirit so that we may exercise our spirit has to do with dealing with the inner parts of our being, the three parts of our soul.
When our spirit comes out like a spring of pure water, it may be tainted with the things in our soul which are undealt with.
So our spirit is pure, but it may be full of anger because of our imbalanced emotions, stubborn because of our unsubmissive will, and not clear because of our wandering mind.
If our mind is wrong, our spirit cannot be right; if our emotion is wrong or our will is stubborn, our spirit can never be right.
So we need to deal with the parts of our soul.
Our will need to be subdued and made submissive to our spirit, our emotion needs to be balanced, and our mind needs to be sober and sound.
Then our spirit will be powerful, loving, and sober; we will have a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness.
A spirit of power is a spirit with a subdued and resurrected will, a spirit of love is a spirit with an emotion filled with God as love, and a spirit of sobermindedness is a spirit with a renewed mind.
Thank the Lord, our dear Lord Jesus is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, and He shepherds our soul (1 Pet. 2:25; Psa. 23:1-6; cf. Heb. 13:17).
Our soul is our inner being, our real person; our Lord shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person.
He is shepherding us, that is, He is shepherding our soul.
Because the exercise of our spirit is linked to the parts of our soul and is so vital to living in the reality of God’s economy, we need to cooperate with the Lord in His heavenly ministry by having our soul established by the Lord and also by cooperating with the Lord to establish others’ souls.
Thank You, Lord, for not giving us a spirit of cowardice but of power and of love and of sobermindedness! Hallelujah, our spirit is of love and of power and of sobermindedness. Amen, Lord, we want to exercise our spirit and deal with the parts of our soul surrounding our spirit – our mind, our emotion, and our will. We want to have a spirit of power by having our will submissive to the Lord in our spirit. May we have a spirit of love by having our emotion balanced by the Lord and one with His emotion. May we have a spirit of sobermindedness by having our mind renewed and made sober by the Lord. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls to have our soul established. Establish our soul today. We open to Your care and shepherding, for You are exercising Your oversight over the condition of our real person. Amen, Lord, establish our soul and make us those who cooperate with You to establish others’ souls!
Exercise our Spirit by Doing all things in Christ and by Setting our Mind on our Spirit
For us to exercise our spirit, that is, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is for us to always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks (1 Thes. 5:16-18). Amen!
We need to rejoice always, pray unceasingly, and give thanks in everything in order to enjoy the indwelling Spirit as the secret of doing all things in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2a; Phil. 4:11-13; Psa. 91:1).
Paul was a person who always exercised his spirit; even in prison, he exercised his spirit and contacted the Lord, being a person who always rejoiced, in everything gave thanks, and prayed unceasingly.
He did this because he knew the secret: he learned the secret of how to be abased and how to abound, for in everything and in all things he exercised his spirit and took the indwelling Christ as the secret of his sufficiency. Hallelujah.
We need to be those who learn the secret today in our Christian life; the secret is that in all things we turn to the indwelling Christ and take Him as our life and everything.
May we exercise our spirit all the time to do all things in Christ, with Christ, and by Christ, and may we build up a habit of exercising our spirit in all things.
When we are abased, we desperately turn to the Lord, for He can rescue us, He can supply us, and He can strengthen us to go through our current situation.
When we’re abased, we are pressed into our spirit and we exercise our spirit.
But what about when we’re not abased but we abound? We might forget the Lord then.
Everything is going OK, no one is bothering us, and there is not much suffering in our environment. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May we be saved from languishing in the land.
May we not think like Deut. 8:17-18 says, that our strength and the might of our hand has given us all these things. Oh, Lord Jesus.
May we learn to turn to the Lord by exercising our spirit even in abounding so that we may fan our spirit into flame! He is the One who provides.
We want to do all things in Him and with Him; He is the secret of our sufficiency. Amen!
Another practical way for us to exercise our spirit is to set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6; Mal. 2:15-16).
Our wandering mind, our unrestrained mind, needs to be set on our spirit.
When we set our mind on our spirit, we have the inner sense of life and peace; also, we have the sense of strength, satisfaction, rest, release, liveliness, watering, brightness, and comfort.
This is the sense of life that we have when we set our mind on our spirit.
But when our mind is set on the flesh, which is by default many times, we have the inner sense of death, the sense of weakness, emptiness, uneasiness, restlessness, depression, dryness, darkness, and pain.
There is a sense of life in our spirit; this sense notifies us when we are on the line of life and when we’re on the line of death.
As we exercise to have a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness, we are setting our mind on our spirit and living a life according to the sense of life.
Our Christian life is not according to the standard of right and wrong but according to the inner sense of life and peace in our spirit (Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 2:13-14).
In our daily life as Christians, we do not live according to right and wrong but according to the sense of life.
When spouses argue, many times it is because both of them feel they are right.
Being right or wrong is something of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and leads to death; we should not be in the realm of right or wrong but in the realm of life, on the line of life.
May we learn to say sorry to others and simply remain on the line of life, eating the tree of life.
Lord Jesus, we want to exercise our spirit by always rejoicing, unceasingly praying, and in everything giving thanks! Praise the Lord! We rejoice in You, and we keep calling on Your name so that we may pray unceasingly. Thank You, dear Lord, for being in us as the indwelling Spirit supplying us in all things. We want to learn the secret of doing all things in Christ and with Christ, the One who indwells us. Amen, Lord, teach us how to fan our spirit into flame so that we may exercise our spirit throughout the day. We want to set our mind on our spirit so that we may have an inner sense of life and peace. Oh, how wonderful it is to set our mind on our spirit! What a sense of strength, satisfaction, rest, release, liveliness, watering, brightness and comfort we have when our mind is set on our spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to remain here, in our mingled spirit, and we want to live on the line of life, not according to the standard of right and wrong!
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, The Stream Magazine, Book One, pp. 298-331, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy (2024 April ITERO), week 1, Living in the Reality of God’s Eternal Economy for Its Fulfillment by Building Up a Habit of Exercising Our Spirit, Fanning Our God-given Spirit into Flame.
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– The Spirit with our spirit: the secret of the believers’ experience of God’s salvation in life, article by David Yoon via, Affirmation and Critique.
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– What is Grace? Read more via, The Hearing of Faith newsletter. - Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / I ask Thee, gracious Lord, / Oh, may it flow! / My trust in self o’erthrow, / Down from self’s throne I’ll go, / That living water flow / In spirit, Lord. / Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / Answer my prayer, dear Lord, / Oh, may it flow! / Not just commune with Thee, / I long to builded be, / Mingle with others free / In spirit, Lord. (Hymns #846 stanzas 5-6)
– In dealings with the Lord as life / We need a proper heart, / That of His riches, in His grace, / We fully may take part. / We need a heart in all things pure, / With mind both sound and clear, / To understand His mind and heart / In trembling and in fear. / We need a fervent, loving heart, / A heart on fire with love, / With an emotion filled with zeal / For Him, all else above. (Hymns #744 stanzas 1-3)
– 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)
About aGodMan
The Stream Magazine, Book One, pp. 302-306, by Witness Lee
How much we need our soul to be established so that our mind may know and understand the Lord and the things concerning Him, our emotion would love the Lord and have a heart for His interest, and our will would be strong and remain in the things of the Lord!
We need to cooperate with the Lord to deal with our soul so that we may have a spirit of power balanced by a spirit of love and a spirit of sobermindedness.
To exercise our spirit, we need to deal with the parts of our soul so that our spirit may flow freely.
We have to pray for the Lord to deal with our troublesome soul, and we need to cooperate with His dealing.
To deal with the spirit isn’t a matter of dealing with the spirit itself but with all the parts of the soul which surround our spirit.
Our will must be subdued, our emotions need to be balanced and our mind needs to be sober & sound.
When our will, emotions & mind are wrong, our spirit can never be right.
We need to see clearly that the three parts of our soul are related to the exercise of the spirit and, when we exercise our spirit we must open our entire being to the Lord. Hallelujah!
We have a Saviour who shepherds our soul.
May we be continually open to receive His submissive & obedient will, His loving emotions, and His sound & sober mind.
Acts 14:22, footnote 1 on, “souls,” Recovery Version Bible
Amen, Lord, we give our whole being to you have your way in us, your will be done.
Amen, our spirit can never be right if our mind, emotion and will are wrong.
The spirit, though pure, flows through these.
The passage must be subdued, balanced and sober.
This is how the three parts of the souls relate to the exercising of the spirit.
And, may we have a spirit of power, love and sobermindedness
Aaaaameeen! Yes Lord!
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and sober-mindedness, power relates to our will, love to our emotion and sober-mindedness to our mind!
This indicates that a strong will, a loving emotion and a sober mind has very much to do with having a strong spirit for the excercise of the gift of God that is in us!
Praise the Lord! 🙌😃🙋🏼
Establishing the souls is to be established in our mind emotion and will.
It is for our will to be subdued to be submissive to the Lord that we may be strong to remain with the Lord and do the things that please the Lord. It is to be balanced in our emotion that we may love the Lord and have a heart for the Lord’s interest.
It is our our mind to be renewed that we may know and understand the Lord and the things concerning Him.
To exercise our spirit we must deal with our soul.
Our will must be subdued and in resurrection.
Our emotion must be filled with God’s love and our mind must be renewed. We have the mind of Christ!
07/26/24 Living in the Reality of God’s Eternal Economy for Its Fulfillment by Building Up a Habit of Exercising Our Spirit, Fanning Our God-given Spirit into Flame (Week 1, Day 5)
Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” At the time of our reservation, God has given us a spirit of power, of love, and of sobermindedness. These are not three kinds of spirits, but it is just one spirit, having three aspects of expression: power, love, and sobermindedness.
Actually, our spirit uses our soul as an organ for its expression. Our soul, which is made up three parts: mind, emotion, and will, is our very person. Our soul, our person, is distinct from one another because our thoughts, opinions, likes, dislikes, ways, and goals are different from one another.
In 2 Timothy 1:7, it speaks concerning power, which is a matter of the will, love, which is of the emotion, and sobermindedness, which is of the mind. Therefore, our regenerated spirit expresses its power through our will, its love through our emotion, and its sobermindedness through our mind.
In our natural fallen condition, our will is hard and stubborn, our love is unstable and fades away, and our mind is unclear and impure. Since our soul, that is, our mind, emotion, and will, completely surrounds our spirit, the expression of our spirit is greatly influenced by these three parts.
Our spirit is like a spring that flows out its clear and pure water through a passage, which is our soul (our mind, emotion, and our will). If our soul, as the passage, is corrupted and dirty, the clear and pure expression that comes out from our spirit will also become corrupted and dirtied. Because of this, we, therefore, need to exercise our spirit by dealing with three parts of our soul, which is, by turning our heart to the Lord in our mingled spirit, which has been reinforced and empowered by the indwelling Triune God (Eph 3:16).
By ourselves, we cannot subdue our will, force our emotion to love, nor cause our mind to be sober. But as we turn our heart to the Lord in our mingled spirit, the Spirit strengthens and empowers our inner man to our mind, emotion, and will so that power, love, and sobermindedness would be purely expressed and without any contamination (2Cor 3:16). Eventually, our mind will be directed into God’s thoughts, our emotion will truly love the Lord and those whom the Lord loves, and our will will be focused to accomplish only God’s will.
To exercise our spirit is, not only (1.) to fan our spirit into flame (2Tim 1:6), but also, (2.) to deal with the parts of our soul that surrounds our spirit, but also (3.) to rejoice always, pray unceasingly, and give thanks in everything (1Thes 5:16-18). In this way, we shall enjoy the indwelling Spirit as the secret of doing all things in Christ (2Cor 12:2a; Phil 4:11-13; Psa 91:1; 1Thes. 5:16-18)
First Thessalonians 5:16-18 say, “Always rejoice, Unceasingly pray, In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” In good things and in bad things, we need to always rejoice, not in ourselves, but in the Lord (Phil 4:4, 10).
Instead of being anxious of our situation, we need to rejoice in the Lord. Instead of worrying, we need to pray unceasingly. Instead of blaming the Lord of our situation, we need to learn to give thanks to Him in all things, believing that He arranges all things to work together for good, that is, for His divine economy (Rom 8:28).
[Excerpt from HWMR-Wk. 1 Day 5]
We must deal with all these parts of the soul. The will has to be subdued, the emotion has to be balanced, and the mind has to be sober and sound. HWMR – W1D5
To exercise our spirit, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is to set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6; Mal. 2:15-16). 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 we set our mind on the flesh, we have the inner sense of death, the sense of weakness, emptiness, uneasiness, restlessness, depression, dryness, darkness, and pain. Our Christian life is not according to the standard of right and wrong but according to the inner sense of life and peace in our spirit (Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 2:13-14).
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