The Practical Way for us to live Christ is to daily Walk According to the Spirit

The practical way for us to live Christ in our daily life is to walk according to the spirit, that is, to live in the mingled spirit and walk according to the mingled spirit.

In a sense, we believers in Christ have only one all-inclusive command or task, which is to walk according to the spirit.

What the Lord desires to gain is a group of people who live and walk according to the spirit to express Christ and live Christ in their daily life; such a group of people is built up in spirit to be the Lord’s corporate expression on earth, the church as the Body of Christ.

The main point of our Christian life, therefore, is for us to live Christ.

Actually, the very meaning of the word Christian is that we are so one with Christ and so in love with Him that it is no longer us who live but Christ lives in us, and so when others see us, they see Christ, so they say, This man is like Christ, he’s a Christian.

If Christ only died and was buried, nothing would come out of it, but He died, was buried, was resurrected became a life-giving Spirit, and came into our spirit to regenerate us with His life so that we may live Christ.

Because He lives, we also live, and our living is because of His living in us (John 14:19). He lives, so we live. As we exercise our spirit to live according to the spirit, Christ lives in us, and we live Christ.

This sounds so wonderful and seemingly so simple, but what about our experience? Do we practice living Christ by walking according to the spirit? Do we habitually walk according to the spirit in all the details of our daily life, and do we live in spirit all the time?

We all have to repent before the Lord and ask for His forgiveness because, even though we may know Christ, enjoy Him, love His word, and meet with the saints, we are still very short of living Christ. We are all so short of walking according to the mingled spirit.

We may know that our spirit has been regenerated and mingled with the Spirit of the Lord, but we may not walk according to this mingled spirit. Oh Lord Jesus!

Our daily living has to match what the Lord has shown us, and our daily walk has to be according to the revelation we have received.

For the living of the church as the one new man, we all need to live Christ in our daily life by walking according to the spirit. The Lord Jesus dwells in our spirit as the Spirit, and we are joined to Him as one spirit.

Whenever we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously fulfill all the requirements of the law, we express Christ, and God is manifested in us. The unique requirement that the Lord has for us in our Christian life is that we live Christ, that is, that we live according to the spirit and walk according to the spirit.

The Practical Way for us to live Christ is to daily Walk According to the Spirit

In the church life many expressions such as, walk according to the spirit, live Christ, and live by the Spirit, are quite common. But these expressions, though full of riches and meaning, may become increasingly hollow, without substance or reality, if we don’t practice to walk according to the spirit.

We may just have a jargon or church speech, but how much reality of living Christ is there?

We need to pay our full attention to walking according to the spirit in order to live Christ. The practical way for us to live Christ is to walk according to the spirit. However, we are very much distracted from walking according to the spirit, and even good things and scriptural practices may distract us from living Christ.

When we have serious problems or when we experience difficulties, we pray desperately to seek the Lord’s leading. But this is not what walking according to the spirit mean.

To walk according to the spirit, which leads to the spontaneous fulfilling of the requirements of the law (Rom. 8:4), is to do everything in our daily life according to the spirit.

Both in big things and in small things we need to walk according to the spirit.

Both when we experience difficulties and when we are simply going about our daily life, we need to walk according to the spirit.

We may reply to an email, we may talk to our spouse, or we may spend time with our family; in all these mundane things we need to live Christ.

We may be about to speak something to someone and have a sense this is not from the spirit; to walk according to the spirit is that we do not say what we were about to say.

We may have dinner around the table or we may mow the lawn, we may clean the house or we may be at the office, we may take a break or take a walk – in all these things we need to walk according to the spirit so that we may live Christ.

If we don’t live Christ by walking according to the spirit, our Christian life may be a performance, and our spiritual activities may be a religious practice.

The word “walk” in Rom. 8:4 denotes the general walk in our living, including how we think, speak, act, and move.

The way we talk to our boss or to our colleagues, the way we relate to our wife, the way we walk on the street, the way we dress, the kind of language we use when we talk to others, the way we relate both to people and to animals and to our possessions, in all these things we need to learn to live Christ by walking according to the mingled spirit.

In all manners of situations, in all our general walk and daily living, we should walk according to the indwelling life-giving Spirit and be led by Him. The way we speak, think, walk, and speak have to be according to the mingled spirit.

We need to have our living and our being according to the spirit so that we may live Christ; our mind has to be set on the spirit, our being has to be in spirit, and our living has to be in spirit (Rom. 8:4-6).

Lord Jesus, what about our living of Christ? Grant us to know the practical way of living Christ, which is to daily walk according to the spirit. Thank You for coming into our spirit to be mingled with our spirit as one spirit. Keep us setting our mind on the spirit and having our whole being in spirit, so that our daily living with all its activities would be according to the mingled spirit. Lord, save us from merely having a performance in our Christian life when we are with the saints. We want to learn to live in spirit and walk according to the spirit so that we may live Christ.

Abiding in the Lord and Bearing the Cross by Walking according to the Mingled Spirit

The spirit according to we need to walk is our regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit; this corresponds to 1 Corinthians 6:17.

Christ as the Spirit is in our spirit, and we are one spirit with the Lord; therefore, we have a mingled spirit – our human spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit. The key to everything is found in the wonderful Spirit who is in our regenerated spirit and who has become one spirit with our spirit (John 3:6).

Most Christians think we should walk according to the teachings of the Bible and listen to the Lord’s word; however, according to Paul’s word in Rom. 8:4, we should walk according to the spirit.  This “spirit” is not just the divine Spirit nor just the human spirit, but the mingled spirit, our regenerated spirit.

Everyone who is saved has a mingled spirit within, and he can walk according to this mingled spirit. Unfortunately, many know how to read the Bible and do their best to follow its teachings, but not many know how to walk according to the mingled spirit.

Many believers want to be more humble and more kind, just like the Lord was; but unless our humility and kindness come out from walking according to the spirit, they are merely a religious activity or mask. Oh Lord Jesus!

We need to live in the spirit by allowing Christ to fill and saturate us until He permeates our entire being, and thereby He is expressed through us (Eph. 3:16-21).

How do we live in spirit? It is by abiding in the Lord; He has come as the Spirit to abide in us, and He will never leave – now we need to abide in the Lord by turning to our spirit and remaining there, and we will practice walking according to the spirit.

When we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously bear the cross (Matt. 16:24). The cross is not apart from the Spirit who is with our spirit; when we are walking according to the spirit, we spontaneously bear the cross.

The only way we can truly bear the cross not by pretension is when we are in the spirit, when we live according to the spirit; it is then that the power of the Lord’s death is effectual.

All the things that happen to us are to test whether we are walking according to the spirit or in the flesh; we do not live in a utopia or a perfect situation, so there are many things that come to test us and help us turn to the Lord and live in the spirit.

The best way to silence Satan is to walk according to the spirit (see Rev. 12:11). We all need a clear view from the heavens to see that what that Lord wants is a group of people who walk according to the spirit.

And the function of the leading ones, their primary concern, should be to help the saints to live Christ by walking according to the spirit in their daily life.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into our spirit to be mingled with our spirit as one spirit. Cause us to realize that You desire for us to walk according to the spirit so that we may live Christ daily. Amen, Lord, we let You fill us and saturate our whole being until You are expressed through us. Make us those who live no longer in the flesh but in the spirit to express Christ in their daily living. Lord Jesus, give us the experiences we need that we may learn to live according to the spirit and we may also be able to help others to walk according to the spirit in their daily life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 1, “The Importance of Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 3, Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit for the Body Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who’s all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. (Hymns #499)
  # ’Tis in our spirit we may walk / And follow Thee alway, / While, as the Spirit, Thou dost lead / And light impart each day. (Hymns #745)
  # Lord, teach me how to exercise / My spirit now to contact Thee, / That in Thy Spirit I may walk / And live by Thy reality. (Hymns #493)