God is the One who preserves our spirit, soul, and body complete, but we also need to cooperate with Him; for us to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit in sanctification, we must keep our spirit in a living condition by exercising our spirit.
1 Thes. 5:23-24 are two very precious verses who both promise us and assure us of what God is doing in us and with us.
The God of peace sanctifies us wholly, and our spirit and soul and body are preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
On His side, God as the God of peace sanctifies us wholly – this refers to quantity, in all the parts of our being we are sanctified wholly, both in our spirit and soul and body.
Also, God is preserving us complete, without blame – this refers to quality, He preserves the quality of our spirit, soul, and body perfect unto the day of the Lord’s return. What a promise!
However, though He does this, we also need to cooperate with Him!
Although God preserves us and sanctifies us, we also need to take the initiative to cooperate with His operation to be preserved by keeping our spirit, soul, and body in the saturating of the Holy Spirit! Amen!
On one hand God is separating us unto Himself to sanctify us wholly; on the other hand, we need to keep ourselves under the saturation of the Holy Spirit day by day so that we would not only be positionally sanctified (that is, separated unto God), but also sanctified dispositionally, in our very nature, by having the element of God replace our natural element and being constituted with God Himself.
As we allow the Spirit to saturate us, we acknowledge those who labor among us and take the lead among us in the Lord and admonish us (v. 12) and we regard them most highly in love because of their work (v. 13).
As we keep ourselves in the saturating of the Spirit, we admonish the disorderly, we console the fainthearted, we sustain the weak, and we are long-suffering toward all.
Furthermore, we see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always pursue what is good both for one another and for all.
In the saturation of the Spirit in our inner being, we always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us (vv. 16-18).
We cooperate with the saturation of the Spirit by not quenching the Spirit, not despising prophecies but proving all things; we hold fast to what is good, and we abstain from every kind of evil (vv. 19-22).
Amen, may we cooperate with the Lord to preserve our spirit in sanctification, and to preserve our soul and body in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit!
To Cooperate with God to Preserve our Spirit in Sanctification, we must Keep our spirit in a Living Condition by Exercising our spirit
In 1 Tim. 4:6-7 we are told to exercise ourselves unto godliness; this implies the exercise of our spirit. In order for us to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit in sanctification, we must keep our spirit in a living condition by exercising our spirit.
On one hand God is the One who preserves our spirit wholly, but on the other, we need to cooperate with Him by exercising our spirit, so that our spirit would be kept in a living condition.
This word “exercise” has the same root word as for gymnastics; as in gymnastics, we need to exercise constantly to keep our spirit in a living condition.
In order to preserve our spirit, we must keep it living by exercising it to have fellowship with God. How do we keep our spirit living? It is by exercising our spirit to have fellowship with God.
We need speak to the Lord, open to Him, be in His word in a prayerful way, and exercise our spirit as we come to the word of God, so that we may contact the Lord and fellowship with Him.
If we fail to exercise our spirit so that we may keep it living, we will leave our spirit in a deadened situation (cf. Jude 19). Oh Lord!
There is a possibility for believers to behave, live, speak, and comport themselves as if they have no spirit!
For us to rejoice, pray, and give thanks is for us to exercise our spirit; to preserve our spirit is first of all to exercise our spirit to keep our spirit living and to pull it out of death (1 Thes. 5:16-18).
Our spirit is many times surrounded by death; there’s death in our environment, death in our work life, and even death in our family life.
Furthermore, there is death in our being, for our mind – when it is not renewed by being set on the spirit – is a realm of death, and our will and emotions are in death when they are not renewed.
So we need to exercise our spirit by always rejoicing, unceasingly praying, and always give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us!
God’s will is our sanctification; for us to be sanctified is for us to always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and always give thanks.
The will of God is for us to be sanctified in our daily life by exercising our spirit. We need to cooperate with the sanctifying God to be separated from a spirit-deadening situation (cf. Num. 6:6-8; 2 Cor. 5:4).
Just as the Nazarites did in the Old Testament, so we need to do today: we need to keep ourselves away from defiling things such as natural affection, earthly pleasure, rebellion, and death.
In particular, we need to be separated from death in every way. So we must worship God, serve God, and fellowship with God in our spirit and with our spirit (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; Phil. 2:1).
Whatever we have, whatever we are, and whatever we do toward God must be in our spirit.
May we take the initiative to preserve our spirit by keeping it living before the Lord!
May we worship God, serve God, and fellowship with God in spirit, and may we keep ourselves away from any death, any earthly pleasure, any rebellion, and any natural affection, which can contaminate our spirit!
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit in sanctification; we want to keep our spirit in a living condition by exercising our spirit! Amen, Lord, we exercise ourselves unto godliness so that God may be manifested through us. We come to You to fellowship with You and stay away from any death and any deadened situation. We choose to always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for us, and this is for our sanctification! Amen, Lord Jesus, we come to worship God, serve God, and fellowship with God in our spirit, and we stay away from any death!
We Preserve our Spirit by Keeping it from Defilement and by having a Conscience without Offense
For us to know how to cooperate with the Lord to preserve our spirit in sanctification, we need to know what our spirit is, or what are the functions of our spirit.
Our spirit is composed of three parts: the conscience, the fellowship, and the intuition.
When we fellowship with God, we do so in our spirit; it is in and through our spirit that we can contact God, for God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24).
When we contact God, we spontaneously have a sense of God, a consciousness of God.
The intuition of the spirit is the direct sense and consciousness that come from God; through this function, we know whether we’re right or wrong.
When we are right or wrong, our conscience condemns us or justifies us; if we are right, we are justified by our conscience, but if we are wrong, we are condemned by our conscience.
So we need to preserve our spirit by exercising it to have fellowship with God, stay away from any death situation and deadening thing, and function in the meetings to express something of what we have experienced of the Lord.
However, if we don’t exercise our spirit, it will remain in a deadened condition.
Even more, if we don’t exercise our spirit but we are actively engaged in things of the world and in its activities, our spirit is being defiled.
As seen in 2 Cor. 7:1, we need to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
We need to stay away from anything that contaminates our spirit.
Sometimes even on the way to the meeting we see certain things, certain pictures, and certain people that contaminate our spirit.
It is good to exercise our spirit at all time and stay away from any contaminating thing; when we are defiled, we need to deal with any defilement of flesh and spirit!
When we browse the internet or check the social media posts, we are defiled very much; others may not see what we see, and we may not look at evil or inherently immoral things, but simply being in the things of the world and watching something, we can get defiled.
When our spirit is defiled, it is contaminated and deadened; as a result, we may not be able to pray unless first we ask the Lord to cleanse us from all defilement.
Our conscience is the window of our heart; through our conscience the light in our spirit can shine into the inner parts of our being, our entire heart.
If our conscience has offense or is not dealt with, the Lord cannot shine.
For us to preserve our spirit, we must exercise ourselves to have a conscience without offense toward God and men (Acts 24:16; Rom. 9:1).
For us to preserve our spirit, we must take heed to our spirit, setting our mind on the spirit and caring for the rest in our spirit (Mal. 2:15-16; Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 2:13). Amen, Lord Jesus, our spirit!
Lord Jesus, we want to preserve our spirit in sanctification by keeping it from all defilement and contamination. Strengthen us into our inner man, Lord, that we may stay away from death and every defiling thing of the flesh and the spirit. Cleanse us again and again by the washing of the water in the Word! Amen, Lord Jesus, we exercise ourselves to have a conscience without offense toward God and man. What we want is to care for our spirit, mind our spirit, pay attention to our spirit, and care for the rest in our spirit! Hallelujah for our mingled spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msgs. 18, 23 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 5, The Will of God – our Sanctification.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Exercise the spirit / Thus to touch the Lord; / Ever by the spirit / Take Him thru His Word. / It is by the spirit / Christ is testified; / It is by the spirit / Man is satisfied. (Hymns #866)
– Within the spirit of the man / Are found the conscience, fellowship, / And intuition, which thereby / The man to worship God equip. / The man must exercise his soul / To choose that God he may possess, / And by his spirit God partake, / And thru his body God express. (Hymns #742)
– May your spirit and your soul / And your body be preserved, / To the coming of the Lord, / Be preserved! Be preserved! / Your whole spirit and whole soul / And your body be preserved, / Be kept blameless till He comes, / Be preserved! Be preserved! (Song on, May your spirit and your soul)
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