As those who have been regenerated by the Lord in our spirit and who have a heart to serve the Lord in the church, we need to have a loving heart and a powerful spirit, a strong spirit, an exercised spirit.
The heart and the spirit of a serving one is more important to the Lord and in the church than his abilities, his knowledge, and his education.
We have seen that the heart of one who serves the Lord and oversees the saints should be enlarged; it should not be narrow or constricted. Many smart people, both brothers and sisters, have become broken vessels strewn in the pathway of the Lord’s recovery because they were damaged by pride and ambition.
In the church life we all are just saints, with Christ as our unique Leader, Teacher, Shepherd, Head, life, and person. But some have an inner desire to lead, and this desire becomes an ambition which eats them up inwardly, consuming them to the point of ruining their usefulness in the Lord’s hand.
We all need to learn to simply touch the Lord personally and be in fellowship with the saints corporately, and if we have a desire to serve or oversee, we need to cooperate with the Lord to take care of our heart and our spirit.
Pride is in us by birth, so we need to be reminded that humility saves us from all kinds of destruction and invites God’s grace. On the other hand, pride makes us the top fool, and rivalry in the work, caring for our prestige and position, and even referring to our capacity and success are signs of pride.
We need to escape pride and be delivered from pride by the Lord’s grace and mercy. We need to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to but rather consider the saints as more excellent than us, appreciate their function, and be built and blended with the saints.
We need to learn from the Lord Jesus to not seek to be served but to serve, even to humble ourselves to wash others feet, ministering life to them in their situation so that they would grow in life and become useful to the Lord.
Like the apostle Paul, we need to preach Christ as Lord and ourselves as the believers slave for the Lord’s sake. This means that we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, so that no matter where the saints are in their walk with the Lord, we would minister life to them for their recovery and restoration.
We need to be full of meekness when we restore the saints who were overtaken by some offense, and we need to avoid self-boasting, self-exaltation, self-glorification, or lusting after vain glory.
A very good way for us to have our heart enlarged is to go and visit other places, other localities, and even other countries. Especially these days with cheaper flights and more means of transportation, we can participate more in the Lord’s move on earth, and our heart will be enlarged.
Repenting and Contacting the Lord to have a Loving Heart and a Powerful Spirit
The Lord Jesus followed John the Baptist by teaching that we need to be born of the Spirit in our spirit (John 3:6). John the Baptist preached that men should repent in their heart, and the Lord Jesus preached that men need to be born of the Spirit in their spirit.
The first step is to repent in our heart, and the second step is to be reborn in our spirit, to be regenerated with God’s divine life in our spirit. These two things happened at the time of our regeneration, for when we believed into the Lord we repented in our heart and we received Him in our spirit.
He came into our heart and transformed our heart from a heart of stone into a heart of flesh that loves Him and is for His heart’s desire.
Furthermore, Christ as the Spirit came into our spirit to beget our spirit and make it a new spirit, a living spirit, a mingled spirit. We need to repent to have a new heart, and we need to be regenerated to have a new spirit.
When we repent, our heart becomes new, soft, and transformed, and when we believe into the Lord Jesus, our spirit is reborn to become a new spirit. This is the beginning of our Christian life.
For us to serve the Lord and learn to care for the saints, we need to maintain the newness of our heart and spirit by daily repenting and contacting the Lord. When we open to the Lord and come to Him in prayer and the word, He shines on us and we repent; then, our heart is softened, renewed, and transformed.
When we contact the Lord in prayer, our spirit is exercised, and we have a new spirit; then, we can serve the Lord in newness of spirit.
As believers in Christ we have a new heart and a new spirit, and this makes us proper persons.
We need to maintain the newness of our heart and the newness of our spirit by contacting the Lord and repenting before Him, so that our heart would be transformed and renewed and our spirit would be kept in newness and freshness.
With our repenting heart we need to love the Lord (Mark 12:30) and with our renewed spirit we need to be full of power, love, and sober mindedness (1 Tim. 1:7). We need a loving heart and a powerful spirit.
This doesn’t mean that the decibel level in our speaking should be high or that we need to shout. God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice but of power and of love and of sober mindedness.
In our spirit we have the power of the Holy Spirit, and this power can rule over any kind of cowardice or passivity, and it can make us proper persons. If our heart is not repentant and loving the Lord, and our spirit is weak and not burning, we cannot serve the Lord.
The condition of our heart and spirit are very important. We need to be burning in spirit, serving the Lord, and we need to be in the Lord’s light to repent and confess our sins, so that our heart may be soft, renewed, and transformed, loving the Lord to the uttermost.
May we be those who cooperate with the Lord to maintain the newness of our heart and our spirit in serving the Lord, so that we may serve Him not in oldness of letter but in newness of spirit, not half-hearted but by loving the Lord with all our heart.
Thank You Lord for coming into us to renew our heart and our spirit. Thank You for making us proper people with a new heart and a new spirit. Lord, we want to cooperate with You to maintain the newness of our heart and spirit. Keep us contacting You and repenting under Your shining light so that our heart may be softened, renewed, and transformed. Keep us exercising our spirit and even fanning our spirit into flame so that we may have a spirit full of power, love, and sober mindedness. Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to serve You in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter!
Exercising our Spirit of Faith to have a Strong Spirit and Serve in Newness of Spirit
The ones who take the lead in the church life need to have a strong spirit; what they need is not as much knowledge, ability, or other things, but a strong spirit. In the leadership for God’s move what we are must be reduced, but the ultimate requirement is to have a strong spirit.
We can have a strong spirit by exercising our spirit of faith; Paul says, I believe, therefore I speak (2 Cor. 4:13).
We are built up in our spirit by exercising our spirit to contact God, live in spirit, and speak for God. Then, when we speak, all we have to do is exercise our spirit and speak in spirit, and whatever we express will be something of God.
Paul told Timothy, The Lord be with your spirit (2 Tim. 4:22); the Lord’s presence is with us in our spirit, and only by exercising our spirit to be strong in spirit can we take the lead in the church life and care for the saints according to God.
What we should build up is not being clever, kind, or careful, but exercising our spirit. We need to pay full attention to building up our spirit. We should not give ourselves any excuse not to exercise our spirit.
The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet (1 Cor. 14:32); because we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17) and the Lord is with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), whenever we exercise our spirit to speak, the Lord will speak in our speaking.
We shouldn’t think that others are more qualified to speak, having more experience than us, so we shouldn’t speak for the Lord or prophesy in the meetings; rather, we need to exercise our spirit, fan our spirit into flame, not make excuses for ourselves, and function for the Lord in every meeting.
Faith is in our spirit, but doubts are in our mind; our spirit is mingled with the Holy Spirit, and we should live in the mingled spirit a crucified life in resurrection for the carrying out of our ministry.
When we exercise our spirit, the spirit will become the stronger part of our being; then, we will be dominated, governed, directed, led, and controlled by our mingled spirit, where Christ lives (see 1 Tim. 4:7; 1 Cor. 2:15; 14:32; John 4:24; 2 Cor. 2:13; Rom. 1:9; 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17).
When our spirit is weak, our mind, emotions, and will control our being and take us over, but when our spirit is exercise and strong, we will be governed by our spirit. We can maintain the newness of our spirit by serving in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6; 1:9) and by exercising our spirit of faith (2 Cor. 4:13).
We need to exercise our spirit of faith until we have a strong spirit; then, no matter what we do or say, we will do it in spirit and in oneness with the Lord.
The presence of our inner man should be a strong spirit, an exercised spirit; this spirit has to dominate and rule our being, and when this takes place, we are new and fresh.
May we spend less time in our mind arguing, debating, and expressing our opinions, and more time to exercise our spirit until we have a strong spirit to serve the Lord in newness of spirit!
Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to serve You in newness of spirit in the church life. Make our spirit strong, we pray. Make us those who exercise their spirit constantly until we have a strong spirit which dominates, governs, directs, leads, and controls us. We want to cooperate with You, Lord, to maintain the newness of our spirit by serving in newness of spirit and by exercising our spirit of faith! Hallelujah, faith is in our spirit, and the Lord is with our spirit! We are one spirit with the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1975-1976, vol. 1, pp. 405-412, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 4, The Heart and Spirit of a Leading One.
- Hymns on this topic:
# For which cause, I remind you / To fan into flame the gift of God / Which is in you / Through the laying on of my hands, / You fan into flame the gift of God, / Which is in you. / For God has not given us / A spirit of cowardice, / But of power and of love / And of sobermindedness. (Scripture song)
# Thru Thy Word and by my prayer / In the spirit touching Thee, / Lifted high my spirit is, / Strengthened shall my spirit be. / Make my spirit strong I pray / Others’ spirits to revive; / Lift my spirit high and free, / Others’ spirits then may thrive. (Hymns #782)
# We’re walking in newness of life / And singing a joyful new song; / In newness of spirit we serve, / This new one accord makes us strong / We’re drinking the new life divine. (Song on, The new way brings forth the new man)
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