As believers in Christ, we want to learn to exercise our spirit in prayer both personally and corporately.
The Christian life is a life in the spirit; we need to learn from Job and his friends with their many rounds of debates to not be in our mind when we meet with the saints but rather exercise our spirit, be in spirit, and fellowship in spirit to be a vital group with the Lord’s presence and supply.
It is easy to read the book of Job and appreciate the poetic expressions, the vast knowledge expressed, and even get some gems related to God creating the earth and everything in it, man having a human spirit and God having a hidden purpose in His heart for us.
However, if we put on the glasses of God’s economy when we read the Bible, when we come to the book of Job by focusing on the eternal purpose of God, we will learn very much from this book.
This book shows us our need to be spiritual, that is, for us to experience God in spirit as we exercise our spirit, live in the spirit, and remain in the mingled spirit.
If we know the purpose of God in dealing with us – which is God’s economy, His intention to dispense Himself into us to make us the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God on earth – we will exercise our spirit to gain more God in every circumstance.
Job’s environment suddenly changed to worse, and even his health declined to the uttermost; he suffered immense loss and pain, and he was perplexed and vexed concerning his situation.
He strongly believed that he didn’t do anything wrong, so why would God punish him in such a way? So he argued with his friends, debating with them and pointing out how righteous, upright, and good he was, at the same time inquiring of God why does He do this to him. Oh, Lord!
In round after round of debates in Job, we see that neither Job nor his friends knew the purpose of God’s dealing with him.
However, the apostle Paul knew God’s purpose in His dealing with His people, and he declared in the New Testament that the affliction the believers are suffering works out for them an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17).
To Job, his affliction seemed so heavy and so long, but to Paul, this was a “momentary lightness of affliction” which worked out for him, more and more surpassingly, “an eternal weight of glory”. Wow.
We as believers in Christ pass through sufferings, difficulties, sickness, and things that we can’t explain but are very harsh; our view should not be “What does God want with me, why does He do this to me?” as Job did, but rather, we should seek to gain more of God as glory.
We may even tell the Lord that we just open to Him so that we may gain more of Him so that the weight of glory would increase in us even as we pass through these things.
May we have such a view of our Christian life and of the experience we have of Christ, realizing that God’s heart is full of love toward us and that all things work together for good, for God wants to give us more of Himself as the real good for us to enjoy, partake of, and be constituted with!
Learning to Exercise our Spirit in Prayer as we Fellowship with the Saints to be a real Vital Group
As Job was suffering, three of his friends came to comfort him, and Elihu was there to help the situation.
The best way they helped him was when they were quiet for many days; that was the best help anyone could have rendered him.
However, these godly people were not just quiet but rather, they started to talk to him, exercising not their spirit to contact God but their mind to debate and argue with him, trying to convince
Job that there must have been something that he did for all these to happen to him.
Instead of exercising their spirit to pray, Job’s friends exercised their mind to the uttermost, talking about many things in heaven and on earth, talking about God and even referring to their spirit, but in all their debates there was no hint that they exercised their spirit. Oh, Lord Jesus!
Job’s friends exercised their mind, searching for words from the heavens, the air, the birds in the air, the beasts on the earth, and the fish in the sea, to compose their poetry.
The book of Job shows us what an unvital group looks like, and it is a warning for us in the church life: we need to beware of exercising our mind when we come together, and we need to exercise our spirit to pray as we fellowship with the saints!
We need to have the vision of God’s economy and realize that we as believers need to be in spirit and fellowship in spirit.
When we have the heavenly vision, we will be saved from any time-wasting, pain-increasing, and vain debates; we will be saved from walking in darkness and we will just exercise our spirit to touch God and receive Him as our life, light, and life supply.
When we come together to fellowship with the saints, the first thing we must do is pray; we must exercise our spirit to pray, contacting the Lord with fresh, living prayer, realizing that the Lord is the center and the focus.
Job’s friends talked in a very poetical and beautiful way, but they were groping in darkness, talking nonsense as if they knew so much but being in utter darkness related to God and His plan.
When we fellowship with the saints, we need to exercise our spirit to pray so that we may have genuine fellowship with God so that we would receive God.
In a group meeting, we should not debate, argue, or be in our mind; rather, we need to come together and exercise our spirit to pray, realizing that the vital groups are groups of vital prayer (see Acts 12:5, 11-12; Heb. 10:24-25; 3:18).
In our coming together either in a home meeting, group meeting, Lord’s table meeting, prayer meeting, or any kind of informal meeting or visitation, we need to first exercise our spirit to pray.
Our meeting must be vital in the two spirits – vital in our human spirit and vital in God’s divine spirit, for the Christian life is a life of the consummated Spirit dwelling in and mingled with our regenerated spirit to be one spirit (John 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 3:14; 6:18).
Our Christian life and church life must in the mingled spirit; if we are not in the spirit, we may like the saints so we may go along with what they say, but at one point we may not agree or we may dislike them, and then we may argue, debate, or even leave the church life.
When two or three of us come together, practicing to be a vital group, we need to focus on the mingled spirit – and not on our mind; the best way to exercise our spirit, whether alone or together, is to pray.
We shouldn’t come together and just talk, catch up with one another, or open to one another in an intimate way without the exercise of our spirit.
Such a practice will kill our group meeting. Instead, we should exercise our spirit to pray, praise God, and sing some songs or declare some hymns.
We need to stir up our spirit, exercising our spirit to contact the Lord and fellowship with Him; the real fellowship with one another is in the mingled spirit, in the exercise of our spirit.
Lord Jesus, we choose to exercise our spirit and be in spirit in our daily life and also in meeting with the saints as a vital group. Save us from wasting our time by being in our mind as we meet with the saints; may we exercise our spirit to pray, contacting the Lord and receiving Him as our life and life supply. Oh Lord, make us vital and living. Make us those who exercise their spirit all throughout the day and especially when we meet with our fellow believers! May we live in our mingled spirit today, choosing not to be in our mind but setting our mind on the spirit! Amen, may our Christian life be a life in the mingled spirit, a life in the divine Spirit indwelling and being mingled with our human spirit! We want to exercise our spirit and help others also turn to their spirit and be in spirit! Hallelujah, the real fellowship is in the mingled spirit, and the real building up of the church is in our spirit!
Being Persons in spirit, Seeking God in a Spirit of Humility, and doing everything in Spirit
As believers in Christ, we need to realize that the reality of all that God is and has, the reality of all that Christ is and has accomplished, and the reality of the Spirit is in our mingled spirit; the reality of our Christian life and church life is all in the spirit.
We need to learn to touch the divine Spirit in our human spirit; this is the intrinsic significance of our Christian life and work (Rom. 1:9; Rev. 1:10).
The move of God in man and the move of Man in God to fulfil His economy is in the mingled spirit; in His economy, God is dispensing Himself in Christ as the Spirit into us to build up the Body of Christ and prepare the bride of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem (2 Cor. 2:13; Phil. 3:3; Rom. 1:9).
May we not follow the example of Job and his friends who, though they were good friends and wanted to help one another, did this in their mind and not by exercising their spirit.
Whenever we come together, whenever we want to help someone, and whenever we feel we’re not in spirit, we need to turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, being persons in spirit.
In the book of Romans, Paul stresses that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (vv. 10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (1:9; 7:6; 8:4; 12:11) must be in our spirit. Amen!
We must be perfected and built up to be persons in the spirit, for there’s no other way for us to be a lover of God, a seeker of Christ, or an overcomer than to be in the spirit (Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10).
We are a real Christian when we’re in spirit; we live the Christian life when we live in the spirit; we are an overcomer when we live in spirit.
We need to learn to be in spirit not just to try to figure out what’s going on in our situation and why do we have so many difficulties and so much suffering, but simply to contact God and be saturated with God.
We need to turn to our spirit and live in spirit not so that we may analyze and diagnose what’s going on in our situation or in other’s situation, but for us to contact God, be supplied by God, and know God.
When we turn to our spirit and pray, we contact the Lord; when we’re together with the saints and help one another to contact God, we render one another real help.
To help one another we need to be in spirit, touch God, be touched by God, and receive God; then, we will truly see something in His light and under His shining.
In Job’s situation, if he and his friends had taken the time to seek God in a spirit of humility and by exercising their spirit in prayer (Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Col. 4:2), God could have shown them that a regenerated, transformed, and glorified saint in Christ has nothing to do with the natural man and does not need to build up himself with the natural virtues.
When we exercise our spirit in prayer, we will clearly see that we as believers in Christ have nothing to do with the perfecting or uplifting of the natural man; rather, we are building the new man, the regenerated man in our spirit.
We all need to take time to personally, privately, seek God in secret in a new way; in a much deeper way, in a spirit of humility, we need to seek the Lord in our personal time with Him.
We should allow all the haughtiness of our natural man to be crucified and any element of our hidden pride to be exposed and cast away so that God would bless us with a real, humble spirit.
May we learn to exercise our spirit to pray to the Lord, so that He may be delighted and pleased to visit us, for our condition is contrite in heart. This is very much needed among us so that the Lord can give us the light, expose us, and work within us to be everything to us.
Lord Jesus, we come to seek You in a deeper way, even in a spirit of humility. Have mercy on us, dear Lord, and bless us with a humble spirit, so that we may have Your presence and Your supply. May we realize that we have nothing to do with the improvement of the natural man or with the building up of the natural virtues. Shine on us, dear Lord, so that all the haughtiness in our natural man may be crucified and any element of our hidden pride may be exposed and cast away. May we be persons in spirit to be real lovers of God, seekers of Christ, and overcomers in Christ. We want to learn to touch the divine Spirit in our spirit so that God may move in us as we move one with God for the building up of the Body, the preparation of the Bride, and the consummation of the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, we choose to turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit to pray, remaining in our spirit to enjoy You and be saturated with You for You to do what You want to do in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Job, pp. 146-151 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 3, Job’s Experience of God’s Consuming and Stripping in the Old Testament Being Far Behind That of Paul in the New Testament.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Exercise the spirit, / Pray in every way! / I have prayed too little, / Keen my spirit, nay. / Even when I prayed, my / Spirit seldom proved / Ever just to follow / As Thy Spirit moved. (Hymns #781)
– My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord! / Learn thus to let the Spirit pray thru thee; / All of thy being with the Spirit move, / Thy prayer will thus God’s own expression be. (Hymns #793)
– Pray with one accord in spirit, / By the cross deny the soul; / All desires and all intentions / Let the Spirit now control. (Hymns #779)
About aGodMan
