For us to gain Christ, we need to Continually Deny the Self and Turn to our Spirit

In order for us to take Christ as everything and gain Him in all things, we need to learn to continually deny the self and turn to our spirit; everything we need is in our spirit, for we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we simply need to enter into our spirit and live in spirit.

May we learn the secret of doing all things in Christ as the empowering One so that we may live Christ, magnify Christ, and gain Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Paul learned the secret; he learned to be content and even rejoice no matter the circumstances.

Whether he was abased or abounded, he was content in Christ. Christ is the secret of contentment.

Christ is the secret of our joy. We need to pursue Christ with the purpose of gaining Him.

In our daily Christian life, our unique goal should be to gain Christ. He is our life and He is also our life supply.

He is our goal and He is our everything. This should be the case with all the believers in Christ.

However, if we check with our experience, many times we have other things than Christ as our goal, and there are many things that we consider to be the source of joy for us.

What do we pursue in life? Is Christ our only goal? Or did we “move on” to seeking something other than Christ, maybe a great work or prosperity or spirituality?

The apostle Paul as a pattern to all the believers pursued Christ and wanted to gain Christ, even to be found in Him.

He was laid hold of by Christ, and now he wanted to lay hold of Him.

He pursued Christ with such a focus that he considered all other things to be loss on account of Christ.

He used to be the “top dog” in the Jewish religion, he had many attainments both by birth and by education and learning, but he put all these aside and considered them as refuse that he may gain Christ.

When we see the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, we will drop all other things.

Today we may have many things that are gains to us; we may have many things that we consider as precious, worthy, and excellent.

But when we see Christ, when we gain the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, all other things will be set aside.

On account of Christ, we will be willing to suffer the loss of all things, for only Christ matters.

He is supereminent, surpassing, absolutely superior to anything else.

Christ is rising above everything else; He is the One of foremost, supreme, and utter value, and the excellence of the knowledge of Christ is something we consider so precious that all other things are put aside and even thrown away.

May we know Christ, experience Christ, and enjoy Christ to this extent.

To take Christ as Everything and Gain Him in all things, we need to Turn to our Spirit

How can we practically take Christ as everything in our daily life? How can we actually gain Christ in all things?

There is only one way to do this: we need to turn to our spirit. On the negative side, we need to deny the self; on the positive side, we need to exercise our spirit.

These two are two sides of the same coin – on one hand, we deny the self, and on the other, we turn to our spirit.

This may sound basic and elementary, and we may know what this means, but we need to have a refreshed view and a fresh experience of turning to our spirit every day.

We must enter into our spirit completely because today the Lord as the Spirit, the reality of the Body, is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18).

Satan dwells in the members of our body, for our body is the flesh; however, God dwells in the spirit, for we’re joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

We need to learn how to set our mind on our spirit (Rom. 8:6); we need to depend on the Lord and trust in Him.

The secret to our Christian life is turning to our spirit.

Unless we set our mind on our spirit and turn to our spirit, we will not have a way to practically take Christ as everything and actually gain Christ.

We may be very knowledgeable in the Scriptures and we may have all the correct doctrines and the proper practices, but unless we turn to our spirit, very little is accomplished.

We believers in Christ do not only have a spirit created by God to contain Him, but the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit to make us one with Him.

Our spirit is a regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Our treasure, our possession, and our spiritual capacities and weapons are here, in our mingled spirit.

Some Christians think that they need “power from on high” and the “pouring out of the Holy Spirit of power” but they do not realize that the power is in their spirit.

We do not have to wait for an extended period of time in order for the power from the Lord on high; we simply need to turn to our spirit.

As Heb. 4:16 says, we need to simply come forward to the throne of grace with boldness.

We need to enter into the Holy of Holies and come forward to the Holy of Holies (10:19, 22).

The Holy of Holies is today in our spirit, for the Lord is with our spirit (4:12; 2 Tim. 4:22).

Our need is to learn to turn to our spirit. And this needs to be not only in our time with the Lord in the morning or before going to bed, or when we go to the meetings.

All throughout the day we need to learn to turn to our spirit. We need to learn how to set our mind on the spirit.

The real secret of living the Christian life for the church life is for us to set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6).

We need even to remind one another to turn to the spirit.

We may travel to work and have long hours in the office, but at the end of the day, we can return to our spirit.

Turning to our spirit is the secret to being a Christian.

The way for us to follow the Lord, enjoy the Lord’s riches, live in the reality of the Body of Christ, and function in the New Testament ministry is to continually exercise to reject our self, lose our soul-life, and turn to our spirit (2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 16-4:1; 2 Tim. 4:22; Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:16).

If we continually reject our self, lose our soul-life, and follow the Lord by turning to our spirit, we will enjoy His riches and we will live in the Body of Christ in reality.

If we continually turn to our spirit, reject the self and deny it, and lose our soul life, we can function in the New Testament ministry.

The work of the Lord, which we carry out by the power of the Holy Spirit, is a work that begins with the spirit and ends with the spirit; it begins from our spirit and ends in others’ spirits (1 Cor. 2:4-5, 13, 15; 2 Cor. 3:6; 13:3; cf. Psa. 42:7).

When we exercise our spirit and turn to our spirit, we will flow out something of Christ from our spirit into others’ spirit.

When we turn to our spirit, the Spirit works in us and empowers us to minister something of Christ from our spirit to their spirit to energize them, enliven them, and dispense something of Christ into them.

Lord Jesus, help us choose You. We choose to turn to our spirit. We set our mind on our spirit. Help us never do anything by ourselves to overcome evil or temptation; help us rely on You, stand with You, and trust in You. Amen, Lord, teach us to turn to our spirit day by day, even moment-by-moment. We want to be those who continually exercise to reject our self, lose our soul-life, and turn to our spirit so that we may live the Christian life. Hallelujah, the Lord is with our spirit! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to touch the throne of grace and we come forward to You in spirit! May we learn the secret of living the Christian life for the church life by setting our mind on our spirit! Amen, Lord, keep us in our spirit today! Keep us turning to You in spirit! May even our work for the Lord be in spirit so that we may dispense Christ from our spirit into others’ spirit!

Continually Exercising to Deny the Self, Reject the Soul-life and Turn to our Spirit

The Lord created us with a soul; our soul is to express the Lord. Our spirit is to contain God and receive God, and our soul was created by God for the purpose of expressing Him (Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Eph. 3:2).

Our soul was not created to have its own enjoyment or live according to its preferences; rather, it was created to express the Lord who lives in our spirit.

When we come to the Lord, we enjoy the riches of Christ as grace for our enjoyment, and our soul is made happy in the Lord.

The problem is, however, that our soul by default has its own preferences, tastes, and desires, and many times we go along with what the soul wants, instead of turning to our spirit.

This is why we need to learn to continually deny the self, reject the soul-life and turn to our spirit.

Our fallen soul has the propensity to go after selfish enjoyment and worldly enjoyment.

These are the wrong things, for they never satisfy the soul. Christ is our real enjoyment.

Everyone who drinks of the water that this world has to offer us will thirst again, but he who drinks of Christ as the living water will never thirst again but will be satisfied (John 4:13-14).

Even more, this water will become in us a fountain springing up into eternal life!

When we really enjoy the Lord, we are happy and satisfied, and our soul expresses the Lord that we enjoy.

But when we enjoy the things in the world, we remain empty and dead.

Our real enjoyment should be Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ as grace.

Man’s first sin was not adultery, stealing, or murder; rather, it was taking something according to his own preference.

The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was lovely, desirous, and pleasant, and man exercised his preference to take it.

Man’s first sin was to do something for the self to satisfy the self (Gen. 3:1-7).

But our soul was made to express God, not to be selfish and focused on the self.

May we learn to continually exercise our spirit and deny the self, reject our soul-life, and reject the soul’s desire, preference, and choice.

May we learn to pay the price to gain Christ as the prize.

May we learn to pay the price to follow the Lord in spirit by losing our soul-life, denying the self, and exercising our spirit.

May we choose Christ instead of choosing our soul with its preferences and desires.

To deny the self is to reject the desire, preference, and choice of the soul.

When the soul wants something for itself, we need to turn to our spirit and deny the self.

Praise the Lord, we have a spirit to contact God and receive God, and we have a soul to live out and express God (John 4:10, 14, 24; 6:57; Luke 1:46-47; 1 Cor. 10:31).

Our spirit is the innermost part of our being, and it is to contact God and receive Him.

Our soul, which surrounds our spirit and is our outer man, is made to express God who lives in our spirit.

Taking in God, living out God, and expressing God should be our joy, amusement and entertainment. Amen!

The real amusement and entertainment for a believer is exercising our spirit to contact God, take in God, live out God, and express God.

Lord Jesus, thank You for creating us with a spirit to contact and receive God to be filled with God! Thank You for creating us with a soul to live out and express God. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to contact You, enjoy You, and receive You. We want to be filled with God. We want to learn to continually exercise to deny our self, lose our soul-life, and reject the preferences of our fallen soul. Oh Lord, we are not here to satisfy our soul or focus on the preferences of the self. We want to enjoy the riches of Christ as grace day by day! We want to take in God, live out God, and express God! Be the enjoyment in our soul. May we be those who take in God, live out God, and express God by turning to our spirit and denying the self!

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 brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 99-101, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 1, entitled, Taking Christ as our Everything to Gain Him by Denying our Self and Turning to our Spirit.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Now we’re learning to turn to our spirit, / Now we’re learning to take Christ as life; / Now we’re learning to feed upon Jesus / And be freed from all struggling and strife. (Hymns #1141 stanza 3)
  – Christ is our inner life; He’s in our spirit now; / Not far away from us—He’s right inside! / And as we turn to Him and take Him as our all / He will become in us our inner life. / Out from our inner life will come our daily life, / And all our living be filled up with Christ. / Then as we live by Him, He lives His life in us, / And He becomes to us our daily life. (Hymns #1216 stanzas 2-3)
  – By the cross discern the spirit, / Put the soul to death alway; / Bear the cross, deny the self-life, / Walk in spirit day by day. / By the cross discern the spirit, / Through the living Word of God, / Separating soul from spirit, / That the right path may be trod. (Hymns #748 stanzas 1-2)