Learning to Deal with any Mixture and Defilement of Spirit under the Lord’s Light

A big problem among the children of God is the mixture of the self with the spirit; this mixture disqualifies many from serving God, for this mixture is displeasing to God, and we need to deal with the spirit by dealing with impure motives and intentions and other mixtures within us.

God hates mixture. He hates it when His people mix the things of God with the things of man, and He hates it when the word of God and the word of man are mixed.

May we be those who seek to be purified and cleansed from any mixture.

May we remain in the pure word of God, allowing the Word to constitute us, saturate us, and divide the soul and the spirit in us (Heb. 4:12).

It is so sad to see in Christianity today that there’s so much mixture.

There are genuine believers in all these denominations, free groups, and Christian circles, but there is so much mixture of the word of God with the word of man, the divine revelation with man’s traditions and opinions, and the pure word in the Bible with something that man emphasizes based on his preferences.

You can’t say that they are completely wrong, neither can you say they are right; you just sense that there’s another element there, something that makes the whole thing mixed.

Satan changed his tactic of attacking the church from a full-frontal attack via persecuting the church to bringing in confusion and mixture in the church to divide the church based on different things.

The principle of Babylon is mixture and hypocrisy; it is gilded with the holy and divine things but having all kinds of uncleanness and evil things underneath.

May the Lord save us from any mixture and may we be purged from any pretense and hypocrisy.

May we learn to be pure and single for the Lord, having a heart for Him and His purpose, and may we leave all other things aside.

Many times we experience defeats and setbacks both as individuals and as the church because we have a hidden Babylonian garment that we, like Achan in the Old Testament did, have it and not tell anyone about it, for we want to beautify ourselves.

Or we may serve God and be so much for the Lord and for the church life, but we may have a whole room set aside in our being for the enemy, giving the enemy the ground in our being even as one of the priests prepared a room for Tobias (God’s enemy) in the time of Nehemiah.

When it comes to the matter of mixture and hypocrisy, the Lord shines on us, but we need to cooperate by saying Amen to His light, and we need to simply agree with the purging and cleansing of the light.

We need to take the initiative, and the Lord will work in us. May we allow the Lord’s light to shine on us and expose the mixture and pretense we have in our being, and may we say Amen to His shining, cleansing, and purging.

May we be the pure, single, and holy people of God who is cleansed and purified again and again so that we may build up the church as the pure, chaste, and holy bride of Christ for Him to return and take us to Him as His overcomers. Amen, Lord, make us such ones!

Seeing the Mixture in Acts 21 and in the Book of James and being Delivered from any Mixture

When we speak of having mixture in our being and among us in the church life, we see a very clear example of this in Acts 21 and in the book of James.

In Acts 21 we see that, on the positive side, Paul gave such a good report concerning what the Lord has been doing among the Gentiles, and on the negative side, there was a strong Jewish influence in the church in Jerusalem.

Paul was clear concerning God’s New Testament economy, and he presented a clear report of how God was moving in the Gentile nations to gain the church as the bride of Christ.

But the saints in Jerusalem, especially James, were very much focused on the law, to the extent that they asked Paul to prove that he did not deny the Mosaic law and therefore be purified according to the law with some of the others.

And they also said to him, “You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed; and all are zealous for the law.” (Acts 21:20) Wow!

They did not say that they are zealous for the Lord Jesus or for the church life but for the law.

There was a strong mixture in the church in Jerusalem between the New Testament economy of God and the law with its rituals and ordinances, to the extent that so many thousands among the saints there were zealous for the law.

If today someone would come and visit us from another local church and give us a report concluding with, Saints, there are thousands of saints in our locality, and they are all zealous for the law, we would be very worried.

Acts 21 exposed the terrible mixture in the church in Jerusalem.

The Jewish believers still kept the law of Moses and remained in the Old Testament dispensation.

They were strongly under the Judaic influence, mixing God’s New Testament economy with the outdated Old Testament economy. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May the Lord save us from any mixture.

We may not keep the Old Testament law, but we may have our own self-made law, our own church-life-laws or church life rules that we keep and emphasize.

May the Lord save us from any mixture, and may we allow His light to expose anything of mixture in us and among us.

The saints in Jerusalem were unaware that the dispensation of the law was over and that the dispensation of grace should be fully honoured.

They didn’t realize that any disregard of the distinction between these two dispensations would be against God’s dispensational administration and would be a great damage to God’s economical plan for the building up of the church as the expression of Christ (John 1:16-17; Rev. 2:9).

The law makes demands on man according to what God is, but grace supplies us with what God is to meet what God demands, for grace is God enjoyed by man (see John 1:16-17; Gal. 6:18; 2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9; 1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2; 4:29; 6:24).

In the book of James we also see mixture, for he mixed the Old Testament with the New Testament, the new dispensation with the old, the new people of God with the old, and the new man with the old man. Oh, Lord Jesus!

If we read James 1:1, 17-18; 2:1-4, 8-12; 3:2; 4:11-12; 5:10-11 we see many good and moral and ethical things, but they are part of God’s Old Testament dispensation mixed with something of the New Testament dispensation.

May we allow the Lord to shine on any mixture and may we remain in the pure word of God so that we may be the Lord’s pure, chaste, and holy bride, the church as the Body of Christ composed of the element of Christ to match Him!

Lord Jesus, shine on us. Expose any mixture in our being. Save us from mixing the things of God with the things of man. Save us from mixing the things of God’s New Testament economy with the things in the Old Testament dispensation. Save us from following merely the teachings of man without being in the word of God. Keep us in Your pure, holy, sanctifying word. Keep us pure in heart and spirit toward You. May we be the pure, chaste, and holy bride of Christ who is single and pure for her husband! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to be burning in spirit for You and pay attention to nothing and no one else above You! We come to You to enjoy You, love You, experience You, focus on You, and be fully one with You for what You want to do on earth today.

Dealing with any Mixture and Defilement of Spirit under the Lord’s Light to be the His Pure Bride

Thank the Lord that He has regenerated us with His life in our spirit; our spirit is life (Rom. 8:6-11), and our mind set on the spirit becomes life and peace.

However, we need to realize that we all have a great problem: there is the mixture of the self and the spirit.

When our spirit is released, when we speak the word of God and speak for the Lord, many times what comes out is impure and full of mixture.

Our spirit is clean, pure, holy, and full of life, but the passage of our spirit, the exit through our soul and heart, is impure and full of defilement.

Our spirit is clean and pure, but the coming out of our spirit, which is through our mind, emotion, will, feelings, and heart, is not clean and pure.

This is why 2 Cor. 7:1 says that we need to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

We need to allow the living and operative word of God to work in us so that, as a sharp two-edged sword, it would divide the soul from the spirit and discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).

It is the word of God that operates in us and exposes the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Our soul surrounds our spirit, enveloping it, even as the bone surrounds the marrow; there needs to be the breaking of the outer man for the release of the spirit, and there needs to be the dealing with any mixture and defilement of the spirit under the Lord’s light in our being.

When our spirit comes forth, it passes through the elements of the soul and our body, and many times it becomes contaminated and full of corruption.

We may want to say something in a pure way, and what we intend to speak is so sweet, rich, and nourishing; what comes out, however, may be contaminated by the filthiness and corruption in our soul. We need to deal with the spirit, with the passage of the spirit.

What is the purpose of our heart when we speak? What is our motive, aim, and intention in our speaking and our doing?

When we’re about to act or speak, we need to check with the Lord within us and consider not only if we’re doing something right or wrong, but what is our inner intention, our motive, and our aim.

Is our intention clean? Is our motive pure in saying this or doing that? What about our aim, is it only to please God or is it something for the self also?

Sometimes we may hear someone speak in the meeting, and what they say is according to God’s word; however, their attitude is one of pride, or it is full of condemnation.

Sometimes someone shares something and, instead of having a pure and clean release of the spirit, what comes out is the impurity and mixture in his soul.

It is like the hot springs under the ground, which are pure water, springing forth and coming to the surface through some deposits of sulfur; what issues out is not clean water but stinky and poisonous water.

Unless the many layers in our heart and soul are dealt with, there’s no way for the living water in our spirit to flow. Oh, Lord.

Sometimes we may be dissatisfied with a brother and, whenever we see him, we are reminded of what he has done to us or spoken about us; we need to deal not only with the feeling of the conscience toward this brother but also with the mixture in our being.

We need to be willing to abandon these dissatisfied feelings and deal with any mixtures, so that we may have a pure and released spirit when we see him.

We need to deal with the spirit so that we may deal with the nature within; only when we deal with the nature is the root of the matter treated.

May we realize that our mingled spirit in our innermost part is pure and undefiled, but as the spirit comes out through our soul and body, it may become contaminated by filthiness and corruption.

We need to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.

Our spirit is not dirty or defiled; our spirit is pure with the life of God, but when the spirit comes out and is expressed, it passes through our soul.

What about our soul? If we are angry or upset in our soul, and we try to release our spirit, what comes out is an angry or upset spirit.

If we are worried or full of anxiety in our soul, and we exercise to speak something from our spirit, what is expressed is a worried spirit.

A positive example of having a pure spirit is Paul who asked the Corinthians whether he should come to them with a rod or with a meek spirit; he had a spirit of meekness, and he was pure in spirit.

A negative example is Moses who knew that God was upset with His people and expressed his anger when he called the people of Israel, You rebels!

We need to deal with the mixture and defileness of our spirit. We need to deal with the passages of our spirit, which is our heart, our soul and our conscience.

Dealing with the spirit emphasizes dealing with impure motives and intentions and other mixtures within us (1 Thes. 5:23; 2 Tim. 1:7).

We don’t know what kind of spirit we have when it comes out; it is our blind spot.

When we drive, we all have a blind spot, something that is there but we just can’t see.

Many times we are oblivious to how our spirit comes out; everyone else sees it, but we don’t.

We need the Lord’s mercy. We need to spend time with the Lord and allow Him to shine and expose any defilement of spirit, and we need to agree with His assessment and condemn the defilement.

Then, we must purge this defilement from within us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We need to take the initiative and be willing to have such dealings, and the Spirit will come in to deal with the defilement and mixture.

We need to cooperate with Him, and He will do it in us.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. Save us from having a mixture of the self with the spirit. Save us from mixing the self with the things of God in serving the Lord, thus being displeasing to God. Oh Lord, thank You for our mingled spirit, the innermost part of our being, which is pure and undefiled! Lord, what about our soul? What about our intentions and aims? We open our feelings, desires, and intentions to You. We open to Your shining. Expose any defilement and mixture. May our intention be clean and our motive be pure. May our aim be wholly for the Lord and His interest. We are willing, Lord, to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. We agree with Your light. We condemn all filthiness, all defilement, and all mixture within us. Purge any such elements from our being. Make us pure in heart. Purify our inner being. Purge any defilement of flesh and of spirit. We say Amen, Lord, do this in us for the sake of the church, so that You may gain a pure and holy bride!

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 Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, The Experience of Life, ch. 13 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 6, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of the Purification of the Returned Captives.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The spirit itself not being defiled; the passage of the spirit is filthy – a portion from, The Experience of Life, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
  – The difference between dealing with the spirit and dealing with the conscience, a portion from, The Experience of Life, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
  – The word of righteousness – Relationships in the kingdom, an article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Mixture in worship and worship in spirit and reality, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / For this I plead with Thee, / Oh, may it flow! / High-minded not to be, / Pride shall not prison me, / I’d flow unceasingly, / In spirit flow. (Hymns #846 stanza 3)
  – Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my vain imaginations dig away! / Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my vain imaginations dig away! / All my dreams have to go / That His life may flow… Hallelujah! / Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my vain imaginations dig away! (Hymns #1214 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart. / Increase Thy speaking, Lord, and cleanse our every part. / Oh, purify us, Lord, we pray. / Oh, purify us, Lord, today; / Wash all our natural life away. / Speak now Thy words in us, / And make us glorious. / O Lord, do speak in us today. (Hymns #1315 stanza 2)