The key for us to receive the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and to be a channel of this dispensing for others to receive and enjoy Christ is to exercise our spirit, even to build a habit of exercising our spirit, which is to fan our God-given spirit into flame.
Hallelujah for our spirit!
We believers in Christ not only have a spirit but we have a regenerated spirit, a human spirit that has been regenerated by the divine life. Hallelujah!
Through regeneration, we have received the life of God in our spirit, and we were born of God the Spirit to be a spirit (John 3:6).
Now our spirit is a mingled spirit, for the divine Spirit dwells in our spirit and mingles Himself with our spirit.
We are mingled with the Lord in spirit to such an extent that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.
Both the Spirit of God and our spirit testify, in oneness, that we are children of God.
Now that we are mingled with the Lord in our spirit, we need to be in our spirit, live in our spirit, and do all things in our spirit.
We need to live according to the Spirit by the exercise of our spirit.
When we exercise our spirit, we are one with the Lord, we fulfil God’s economy, and everything of God is real to us. Amen!
When we’re in our spirit, the world is under our feet, for we have overcome the world; greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world, and what has been begotten of God in us overcomes the world.
When we live in our spirit, we cannot sin, for in spirit we fulfil God’s economy and we cannot sin.
When we live in our spirit, the evil one cannot touch us.
He will try, and he does try, but he has no way, no ground, no opportunity in anything in us, for in our spirit we are one with the One who has overcome him. Praise the Lord!
How we thank and praise the Lord for our mingled spirit!
We need to see that we have a spirit, we need to build up the habit of exercising our spirit, and we need to fan our God-given spirit into flame throughout the day.
When we are in our spirit, we overcome any idols, and there’s nothing that we love more than the Lord Jesus.
Day by day we need to build up a habit of exercising our spirit. In big things and in small things, we need to exercise our spirit.
At home, at work, by ourselves, and with other people, we need to learn to exercise our spirit.
We need to be spiritual men, those who exercise their spirit all the time and live according to their mingled spirit throughout the day.
We need to Build up a Habit of Exercising our Spirit to Receive and Flow out God’s Dispensing
May the Lord show us that the key to receiving the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and being a channel of this dispensing for the saints’ growth in life and their enjoyment of Christ is to exercise our spirit (Phil. 1:25; 1 Tim. 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 4:22; Acts 6:10; 1 Cor. 14:32).
Our spirit is crucial to our Christian life.
We need to see the crucial importance of our spirit, and we need to build up a habit of exercising our spirit.
1 Tim. 4:7-8 says that we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness; bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come.
Godliness is a living that is the expression of God; such a living is the issue of the divine dispensing for the divine economy.
This dispensing and the receiving of this dispensing depends on the exercise of our spirit to live Christ in our daily life for the corporate manifestation of God in the church life (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 3:15-16; 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 1:6-7).
To exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit.
We need to build up a habit of exercising our spirit in all things and at all times.
For example, in the morning when we wake up, we need to build up the habit of calling on the name of the Lord.
Instead of being quiet, gathering our thoughts, or focusing on anything else, the first thing we should do every morning is call, Oh Lord!
Then again, we need to call on His name until we really touch Him. Oh, Lord!
When we call on the name of the Lord, we build up a habit of exercising our spirit.
We do not exercise our spirit by doing our best to quietly focus our mind on the things of God.
Rather, it is by calling on the name of the Lord that we exercise our spirit.
Day by day we are learning to exercise our spirit. Day by day we are building up a habit of exercising our spirit.
It makes a big difference to our day when we call on the name of the Lord first thing in the morning.
It makes a great difference in our coming to the Lord in His word when we first call on the name of the Lord.
When we speak of exercising our spirit, the word exercise implies forcing; no one exercises by default, for it is not natural or habitual that we exercise our spirit.
The word exercise implies forcing; we Christians need to force ourselves to use our spirit until we build up a strong habit of exercising our spirit (1 Tim. 4:7).
These days the Olympic games are taking place in France, and many people around the world are watching the athletes compete in their respective games.
The Olympic competitors did not get to go to these games by not exercising; rather, they had to impose a strict regiment on themselves, exercise themselves daily, and even force themselves and push themselves to the limit in order to be qualified to participate in the Olympic games.
If we Christians want to be strong in the Lord and want to grow in Him, we must force ourselves to use our spirit.
We must build a habit of exercising our spirit in our daily life.
![Now that we have seen the importance of our spirit, we want to see the exercise of our spirit. We must build up a habit of exercising our spirit…In the morning, the first thing I spontaneously say is “O Lord.” To call on the Lord by saying, “O Lord” is a habit of exercising our spirit…[It] makes a big difference. If you rise up in the morning without saying anything, you may pray in a routine way without really touching the Lord. This is because there is no exercise of your spirit. We have to build up a habit of saying, “O Lord.” When we say, “O Lord,” we touch the Lord. This is the habit of exercising our spirit. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” p. 181](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Now-that-we-have-seen-the-importance-of-our-spirit-we-want-to-see-the-exercise-of-our-spirit-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Now that we have seen the importance of our spirit, we want to see the exercise of our spirit. We must build up a habit of exercising our spirit…In the morning, the first thing I spontaneously say is “O Lord.” To call on the Lord by saying, “O Lord” is a habit of exercising our spirit…[It] makes a big difference. If you rise up in the morning without saying anything, you may pray in a routine way without really touching the Lord. This is because there is no exercise of your spirit. We have to build up a habit of saying, “O Lord.” When we say, “O Lord,” we touch the Lord. This is the habit of exercising our spirit. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” p. 181")
We may have a disagreement with our spouse or some problems with our colleagues at work; if we do not exercise our spirit, our soul will take over, and our mind will overthink things, our emotions will be stirred up, and our will shall take certain decisions that are not positive.
We may even lose our temper in a bad way. Oh Lord!
When our unrenewed soul becomes prevailing and we do not exercise our spirit, we behave in a very similar way as those in the world, as if we have no spirit.
We do have a spirit; we just don’t exercise our spirit.
This is why we need to build up a habit of exercising our spirit in our daily life so that, when problems or tests come, we habitually exercise our spirit and contact the Lord in all things.
When we force ourselves to exercise our spirit, when we build up a habit of exercising our spirit, we will become a different person, and the Lord will have a way to live in us and be expressed through us.
This is entirely up to us. No one can do this for us.
God will not force us to exercise our spirit, and our closest friends or relatives cannot do this for us.
Each one of us needs to personally build up a habit of exercising our spirit, taking the initiative to call on the name of the Lord, read and pray His word, and turn to Him in all things.
Lord Jesus, we want to build up a habit of exercising our spirit. O Lord Jesus, keep us calling on Your name. We want to call on Your name the first thing in the morning when we wake up, and we want to keep calling on Your name throughout the day! Amen, Lord, make us those who exercise themselves unto godliness! Save us from having our mind, emotion, and will prevail in our daily living. May our spirit prevail. May we be spiritual men, men who exercise their spirit in all things. May our spirit be the strongest part of our being. Amen, Lord, we want to build up a habit of exercising our spirit day by day by calling on the name of the Lord. Keep us coming to You in all things and concerning all things. Keep us in a spirit and atmosphere of prayer so that we may live in our spirit and walk according to the Spirit. Amen, Lord, we want to be strong and grow in the Lord, so we force ourselves to use our spirit in all things. Hallelujah for our mingled spirit!
To Exercise our Spirit is to Fan our Spirit into Flame, for our Spirit is our God-given Gift
In 1 Tim. 1:6-7 Paul charges Timothy to fan his spirit into flame.
To exercise our spirit is to fan our spirit into flame.
2 Tim. 1:6 refers to “the gift of God,” and verse 7 indicates that God has given us our regenerated spirit, our mingled spirit, which is of power, of love, and of sobermindedness.
The gift of God is our God-given spirit, and we need to exercise our spirit by fanning our spirit into flame.
There is fire in our spirit; the divine fire has come into us, in our spirit, at the time of our regeneration.
We can even say that our spirit is the divine fire, for whenever we touch our spirit and exercise our spirit, we catch the divine fire.
The spiritual gift that God has given us is first our spirit; our spirit is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Our human spirit has been regenerated by God with His life, and the Spirit has come into our spirit as the divine fire.
Now we need to fan our spirit into flame.
Thank the Lord for the gift He has given to us, our mingled spirit.
We saved ones have the capital to live the Christian life and the church life; this capital is our God-given spirit.
How can we live the Christian life? It is not by trying harder to please God or obey His word, but by exercising our spirit, for whenever we live in the mingled spirit, all His requirements are spontaneously fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:4).
How can we live the church life? It is not merely by doing our best to go to all the meetings of the church and be involved in the activities of the church; rather, it is by exercising our spirit, for the reality of the church, the dwelling place of God, is in our spirit.
The capital for us to live the Christian life is our God-given spirit.
There is fire in our regenerated spirit, which the Holy Spirit indwells; actually, our spirit is the fire (Luke 12:49-50; Rom. 12:11; Rev. 4:5; Prov. 20:27).
The Lord Jesus has been baptized and cast the divine fire on the earth, and each and every believer in Christ has caught the divine fire.
This divine fire is the impelling force of our Christian life.
It is the divine fire in our spirit that causes us to go on with the Lord and partake of His riches.
It is the divine fire in our spirit that causes us to advance in the growth in life and meet with the saints.
We may sometimes want to go in a particular direction, but there is an impelling force in us that causes us not to go there.
We need to exercise our God-given gift, our spirit, by fanning our spirit into flame.
![Do not be slothful in zeal, [but] be burning in spirit, serving the Lord. Rom. 12:11 The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being. Prov. 20:27](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Do-not-be-slothful-in-zeal-but-be-burning-in-spirit-serving-the-Lord-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Do not be slothful in zeal, [but] be burning in spirit, serving the Lord. Rom. 12:11 The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being. Prov. 20:27")
How can we fan our spirit into flame? We need to open not only our mouth but even more our heart and our spirit to call on the name of the Lord.
First, we need to call on the name of the Lord with our mouth, O Lord Jesus.
Then, we need to go deeper than just calling on the name of the Lord and turn our heart to Him to say, O Lord Jesus!
And then we need to go even deeper than our heart to touch our spirit and use our spirit to say, O Lord Jesus!
We need to learn to open our whole being from deep within.
Calling on the name of the Lord is a good way to open our being to Him and fan our spirit into flame.
Our spirit is deep within our being, past our body and our soul; we need to touch our spirit and fan our spirit into flame by calling on the name of the Lord with our mouth, our heart, and our spirit.
When we are down, we need to call O Lord Jesus again and again from deep within with the exercise of our spirit.
This needs to be our practice day by day.
Lord Jesus, we want to call on Your name from deep within! We exercise our mouth to call on Your name. We turn our heart to You and call from deep within on Your precious name. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit and touch our spirit as we call on Your name! We want to fan our spirit into flame by calling on the name of the Lord with our mouth, our heart, and our spirit. Hallelujah, there is the divine fire in our spirit and we can fan our spirit into flame! Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us calling on Your name throughout the day. Keep us calling on Your name from deep within! Oh, Lord Jesus! We open our mouth, we open our heart, and we open our spirit to call on the name of the Lord! May the divine fire in our spirit burn and impel us to live the Christian life and the church life! May our spirit be exercised and fanned into flame in our daily life and in our church life! Amen, Lord, we want to use the capital to live the Christian life and the church life – our God-given spirit! We choose to fan our spirit into flame today so that the divine fire will burn in us and the Lord Jesus will be expressed through us!
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. 181-183, 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.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Do You Know How to Exercise Your Spirit? More via, Bibles for America blog.
– Fanning into flame the gift of God, a portion from, Teachers’ Training, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– Strike the Spirit of the Scripture to Catch the Divine Fire, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– The mingled spirit, article by John Pester in, Affirmation and Critique.
– To set our mind on the spirit, a portion from, The Spirit with Our Spirit, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
– 8 – The Ministry Abounding with Glory (5) – From chapter eight of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant, via, Shepherding Words.
– Choosing to Exercise our Spirit, via, Living to Him.
– To fan our spirit, a portion from, The Spirit with Our Spirit, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
– How to Build Up the Habit of Spending Time with the Lord Jesus in the Morning, via, BfA blog.
– Growing by exercising our spirit, a portion from, The Experience and Growth in Life, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee. - Hymns on this topic:
– God intends that all His being / Be my full supply; / With Him I must be united, / In spirit nigh. / All God’s being, all His riches / In the Spirit flow; / I must exercise my spirit / Him to know. (Hymns #612 stanza 1 and chorus)
– We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! (Hymns #1151 stanza 3)
– Jesus is the living Spirit, / Our reality; / We enjoy Him just by calling / In simplicity. / Jesus is the living Spirit, / We must now proclaim; / He is rich unto all men / That call upon His name. (Hymns #1142 stanza 1 and chorus)
About aGodMan
(The Spirit with Our Spirit, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
https://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/TO-FAN-OUR-SPIRIT.HTML
We need to build up a habit of exercising our spirit. We need to call on the name of the Lord early in the morning, and we need to fan our spirit into flame throughout the day.
Hallelujah, there is divine fire in our spirit, and we can exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord from deep within so that we may fan our spirit into flame.
We will sense a restrain in our words and actions when living in the spirt.
This should be our central government. God wants to bring us under control in all things.
Amen. O Lord Jesus!
07/25/24 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 4)
In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul goes on to say, “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.” This word was written to encourage and strengthen Timothy in his ministry for the Lord, that his ministry not be weakened by Paul’s imprisonment and the degraded situation of the churches.
Here, Paul seems to be saying to Timothy, “Timothy, I charge you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you. Something in you is burning. However, it is not sufficient for it just to be burning—you need to fan this gift into flame until you shall also burn others. You have something in you, which is a gift of God. Since you have unfeigned faith, I remind you to fan this gift into flame, not only to strengthen you, but also others.”
In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul charged Timothy to commit to faithful men the things which he had heard from Paul. These faithful men should be those who are competent to teach others. In order to fulfill this commission, Timothy himself had to be on fire. Timothy was weakened by the different teachings of men in his locality. This is the reason Paul reminded him to “fan into flame the gift of God,” which was in him (2Tim 1:6).
At this juncture, we need to ask a question: What was the gift of God that Timothy was charged to fan into flame? The Pentecostal people might say that this was the gift of speaking in tongues, but this is doubtful, especially in view of the fact that in Paul’s latest writings, the miraculous things are rarely mentioned.
We need to realize that the gift in 2 Timothy 1:6 is, firstly, the gift of eternal life. As believers in Christ, at the time of our regeneration, we all have received this first gift, God’s divine life, which is eternal. Secondly, the gift here is the gift of the divine Spirit. The eternal life and the divine Spirit, or the eternal Spirit, are both God Himself. Thirdly, God has regenerated our human spirit, thus, we also have received our regenerated spirit as a God-given gift.
In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul continues, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of a sober mind.” The spirit here denotes our human spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-6; Rom. 8:16). Fanning into flame the gift of God is related to our regenerated spirit.
Paul says that we have a spirit of power, of love, and of a sober mind. Power refers to our will, love to our emotion, and a sober mind to our mind. This indicates that a strong will, a loving emotion, and a sober mind have very much to do with a strong spirit for the exercise of the gift of God which is in us.
We need to believe that God has given us such a spirit, and we should praise Him for it. We should not say that we do not feel as if we have a spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. In our physical body we usually do not have any feeling with respect to our internal organs unless there is something wrong with them.
In like manner, we may not feel as if we have the kind of spirit described in verse 7. Nevertheless, we need to believe Paul’s word and exercise our spirit. Second Timothy 4:22 tells us that the Lord is with our spirit. Since the Lord Jesus as the mystery of godliness is in our spirit, in order to express and practice this mystery, we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness by exercising our spirit.
1 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul charged Timothy, “Exercise yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come.” Paul reveals to Timothy that, if we exercise with our physical body, we may only profit a little because it is not eternal. But to exercise our spirit unto godliness, we would profit more, because what we profit would not only be for the present life but also for eternity.
The word “exercise” implies a forced matter. We need to force ourselves to use our spirit until we build up a strong habit of exercising ourselves unto godliness. We need to force ourselves to turn to our mingled spirit, which is, the reinforced spirit, where we can draw strength, power and love to live Christ. Godliness is Christ lived out of us to be the manifestation of God. Today this very Christ is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Tim. 4:22). Hence, to exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life.
In order to fan our spirit into flame, we need to open the three layers of our being:
We need to exercise our spirit in order to live Christ. To live Christ is to continually call on His name, to love Him, and to love His appearing through His Word in our individual pursuance and in the meetings with saints. When we fan our spirit into flame, we shall have the boldness to speak in the meetings, such that, we shall also burn others for that they may also exercise their spirits. This is the way for us to grow corporately in the divine life and for Christ to make His Home in all our hearts.
2 Tim. 1:6 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.
2 Tim. 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.
If you want to fan your spirit into flame, you need to open up our mouth, open up your heart, and open up your spirit. HWMR – W1D4
Amen!!! Oh Lord Jesus!!!
We need to force ourselves to excercise, if we do not build up a habit of exercising our spirit, our soul will become prevailing, will overcome us and subdue us, conquering our spirit!!
If you want to fan your spirit into flame you need to open up your mouth, open up your heart, and open up your spirit. You need to open these three layers of your being. You have to use your mouth to say, “O Lord Jesus.” But then you have to go deeper by using your mouth with your heart to say, “O Lord Jesus.” Then you need to go even deeper by using your mouth with your heart and with your spirit to say, “O Lord Jesus.” This is to open up your spirit from deep within. Then the fire burns. If you are down, you should call “Oh Lord Jesus” again and again from deep within with the exercise of your spirit. Then you will be up. 💚 (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” pp. 181-183)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Timothy, msgs. 3-4; Life-study of 2 Timothy, msg. 1
Amen brother. We need to see that the exercising of our spirit is a matter of the will, a matter of forcing ourselves to fan our mingled spirit into flame.
In order to live Christ in our daily life, we must open our mouth, open our heart and open our spirit.
Amen! We should call on the Lord’s name moment by moment.
Dear brother, for us as the church to be the corporate expression of God we must receive the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity and we must dispense this life into the saints for their enjoyment of Christ and growth in life.
For this we must build up a habit of exercising our spirit in our daily living by fanning this God-given gift, our regenerated spirit, into flame as we begin each morning by calling “O, Lord!”
In this way we touch the Lord to live and express Him to be burning in spirit.
Praise the Lord! 🙌😃🙋🏼🙏
Amen … O Lord Jesus! The breath of life You are to us each moment of every day. O Lord Jesus! We love You, Lord Jesus! ❤️✝️🕊🙏
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
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Amen, exercises means forcing, So, we should force ourselves to come to the Lord to say Oh! LORD JESUS until we feel the Lord touching our spirit.
WE LOVE YOU LORD JESUS.
Amen, build this habit in us Lord. Calling Oh Lord Jesus
1 Tim. 4:7, footnote 4 on “exercise,” Recovery Version Bible
If we are down we should call “O Lord Jesus” again and again from deep within with the exercise of our spirit. Then we will be up.
We should force ourselves to say, “O Lord Jesus! To call on the Lord is a habit of exercising our spirit.
If we Christians want to be strong and want to grow in the Lord, we must force ourselves to use our spirit.
If we do not watch and pray, we will miss the mark of God’s economy— Christ as the Spirit dwelling in our spirit…𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕. In our personal walk we need to watch and pray, and when we are with others, we need to live in our spirit by caring for the sense of life in our spirit (cf. Rom. 8:6)…Only continual prayer keeps us in our spirit [cf. 1 Thes. 5:17].
[Excerpt from HWMR-Wk. 1 Day 3]