For us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind in every practical area of our daily life, we need to drink the one Spirit and allow the Lord to saturate our mind and every part of our inner being.
There is no other way for us to become the one new man in reality but to be renewed in our mind; when we experience a thorough renewal of our mind – which has been built up according to our nationality and culture.
In the book of Colossians we see that the church in Colossae, the recipients of this book, was plagued by the culture and the philosophy at that time, and Paul was trying to help them as they were being crowded around by the cultural elements and practices and by the philosophical concepts.
So in Col. 3:10-11 Paul said that in the new man there CANNOT be Jew or Greek (the Jews are the religious ones with a religious heritage, and the Greeks are seeking philosophy) – there’s no difference for these in the new man!
In the new man there’s no circumcision or uncircumcision, and no barbarian (uncultured ones), no Scythian (wild ones), no slave (the ones in bondage, even the lowest class in society) and no free men (those who are not in bondage who are free).
In the new man Christ is all and in all! In the new man there’s no place for any of the classes or nationalities; in the new man there’s no room for any kind of religious preferences. In the new man there’s room only for Christ, and Christ is all and in all in the new man.
Even though such people exist in the new man, there’s no place for anyone to boast of or insist on their natural characteristics or cultural preferences.
In the new man Christ is all, and He is in all! And the only way for us to practically realize the one new man is by having our mind renewed; if our mind is not renewed, even though we may have the doctrine and the understanding of the one new man, we will not be the new man in reality.
If we’re not renewed in the spirit of our mind actually and daily in our living, there’s no way for the Lord to have the new man.
May we have a desire and a prayer before the Lord that we may enter into the practicality of the one new man; may we ask the Lord to renew our mind and transform our inner being.
When He as the Spirit saturates and permeates our mind and all the parts of our inner being, we are renewed for the one new man, and we enter into the reality and practicality of the one new man in our experience.
Drinking of the One Spirit to be Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind in Every area of our Daily Life
Our need today is to daily put off the old man and put on the new man; this is not something we do by our own efforts or in ourselves, but something that we do by being renewed in the spirit of our mind (see Eph. 4:22-24).
For us to put off the old man and put on the new man daily, we need to drink of the one Spirit that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind in every area of our practical, daily life (Eph. 4:22-32).
We need to be filled in spirit; to be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body (and this leads to dissoluteness), but to be filled in the spirit (our regenerated spirit) is to be filled with Christ (Eph. 1:23) unto the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).
The Lord as the Spirit is in our spirit, and as the indwelling Spirit mingled with our spirit He spreads into our mind; it is in the mingled spirit of our mind that we are being renewed.
For us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind we need to drink of the Spirit! We drink of the Spirit by opening ourselves to the Lord to pray, call on His name, and fellowship with Him.
The Spirit has become so available – He is like the water for us to drink, and the more we drink of Him, the more He fills us with Himself, and the more He saturates our mind to renew it for our transformation.
Such a process of transformation is not merely for our behaviour to be more ethical or spiritual but for the one new man!
The biggest problem in the way of the practical existence of the one new man is our unrenewed mind; because most Christians don’t let the Spirit saturate and take over their mind, they cannot be renewed in their mind.
May we all learn to open ourselves up to the Lord and allow Him to come in and fill us up, so that He may permeate, saturate, and possess our entire being!
If we open to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to fill us, saturate us, and permeate us as the Spirit, He will spread from our spirit and with our spirit into our mind, and our mind will be renewed.
When the Spirit spreads into our mind and saturates our mind, the ordinances are over.
When our mind has been renewed, we don’t care for being black, white, Chinese, Japanese, American, British, French, German, Italian, Korean, or Spanish; we care only for Christ. When our mind has been renewed through our drinking of the one Spirit, we will not care whether the meeting is noisy or quiet; we will only care for the one new man.
May we daily learn to breathe in the Spirit, drink the Spirit, and be filled with the Spirit. The more we are filled with the Spirit, the more we become the church as the one new man. The more we have of the Spirit, the more we are the one new man; the Spirit has to permeate us and penetrate us.
May we no longer make any excuses for the self but ask the Lord to come in, fill us, and saturate us.
When we exercise to drink of the Spirit, He saturates every part of our being (1 Cor. 12:13); when we drink the Spirit, He saturates and permeates us, and the first part He reaches is our mind.
If we drink of the Spirit, we will be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and this renewing will make us all into one new man. We were all baptized in one Spirit into one Body, and we were all given to drink of the one Spirit; inwardly we were put in the position to drink.
Lord Jesus, we are here: we want our mind to be fully opened to You. Come in, Lord, and fill us up. Permeate us, saturate us, and possess our entire being. We put off the old man and put on the new man by exercising our spirit to drink of the one Spirit so that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind in every area of our daily life! Amen, Lord, we want to drink more of the Spirit so that we may be filled in spirit and be saturated with the Spirit! May the mingled spirit spread into our mind to saturate our mind and renew us in the spirit of the mind for the one new man!
When our Mind has been Renewed, the New Man will come into Existence Practically
As soon as we allow the Spirit to penetrate and saturate our mind, right away the one new man is there; the new man is brought forth in practicality when we are renewed in the spirit of our mind.
The new man who was created two thousand years ago needs to be solidified, brought forth in a more substantial way, so that the new man would not just appear here and there, now and then, but would be our reality every day! Amen!
We live in a modern era with so many races and peoples being brought together, but many of them still like to keep themselves divided.
It is easy nowadays to be divided from other Christians because of our religious ordinances; such a living in division is to be conformed to this age, because this age is one of division. We should not be conformed to this age of division because of our ordinances, but be transformed by the renewing of he mind!
When our mind is renewed, the new man can be realized practically. We can’t realize the new man by our being corrected, adjusted, or taught; the new man can be realized only by the Spirit of God permeating our mentality.
When the element of God gets into our mentality, we will think the same way that He thinks, and we will consider the situation as He does, for we see things the way He does.
When this takes place, the new man will come into existence, and there will be no races or social ranks or religious differences, but Christ will truly be all and in all.
This is what the Lord desires to gain on the earth today; His move toward the end of this age is to get the one new man, to have the one new man come into existence practically by our mind being renewed.
When the Lord gets the one new man, the church is built up, the Body is practically in existence, and the Lord has the accomplishment of His purpose.
We shouldn’t look at today’s situation of division but look to the Lord for the new man to be brought forth among us in the church life.
The Lord on His side is doing all things in the present age to usher in the practical existence of the one new man; we on our side need to drop our natural, religious concepts, and simply allow the Lord to saturate, permeate, possess, and take over our mind.
The way we can drop our natural and religious concepts is by having our mind, saturated, permeated, possessed, and taken over by our mingled spirit.
When our mind is renewed, the new man will come into existence practically. When we are renewed in the spirit of the mind, the new man will come into existence; this is the Lord’s move on earth today.
Lord Jesus, may the one new man come into existence in a practical way by our being renewed in our mind for the one new man! Amen, Lord, we want to continually drink the Spirit and allow the Spirit to penetrate, permeate, and subdue our mind, so that Christ would become our all and in all! May the element of God seep into our mentality, spread into our mind, and saturate our mind for us to no longer think in a natural way but in the same way as God thinks. Amen, Lord, spread in our mind to renew our mind so that we may see things the way God sees them, consider the situation as He does, and think the same way as He does for the practical existence of the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” ch. 9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 7, Being Renewed in the Spirit of Our Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. (Hymns #750)
– The Spirit of life is within us today, / Who’s likened to water our thirst to allay; / Of Him we may drink and be filled thus with Him, / Until as a river He flows from within. (Hymns #278)
– Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee, / Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer; / Reading and praying, I eat and I drink, / Praying and reading-Lord, Thou art my fare. (Hymns #811)
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