The new man was created by the Lord Jesus through His death on the cross, and it is coming into existence today in the proper church life.
When all the brothers and sisters in the Lord exercise their spirit and live according to the spirit of their mind (the spirit spreading into their mind), there will be the daily living of the corporate new man.
This is what the Lord is after today – a group of people who practically put off the life of the old man and put on the new man, the church life. This is done by exercising our spirit and living by the spirit of our mind.
As we enjoy the Lord in our spirit, the mingled spirit spreads into our mind and saturates our mind, becoming the spirit of our mind. When we live by the spirit of our mind, we are in the church life, and we are the new man in practicality.
Such a living is not merely the natural kindness and joy but the living of the Lord Jesus again in His many believers. God has been longing for centuries for a proper church life where the brothers and sisters deny themselves, put off the old community life of the old man, and put on the new community life of the new man by living according to their mingled spirit!
In the proper church life there’s no forms, no religion, and no ordinance – here we have only Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit who constantly saturates us, flows among us, and is expressed through us (see Col. 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17).
May the Lord recovery the proper church life in all the local churches all over the earth!
Living According to the Spirit of our Mind
“The spirit of our mind” (Eph. 4:23) is not merely the mind of the Spirit, but it is the Spirit with our spirit spreading into our mind and saturating it to the point that it becomes the spirit of our mind.
The key to the church life is the spirit of the mind – we are in practicality in the church life only when we live according to the spirit of the mind. When the Spirit with our spirit spreads into our mind and saturates it, and we live according to this mingling of God with man, what is expressed is the divine character, Jesus Himself.
Those who live in this way bear the flavor of Christ and the expression of God. The church life is not something outward, an endeavor to show others our good nature or kind disposition; rather, the church life is filled with the aroma and flavor of Christ, and the saints who live according to the spirit spontaneously express God.
The church life as the life of the new man is simply the expression and living of the Triune God in humanity, the corporate living of Jesus again in His believers on the earth.
This is what God desires and has been looking for throughout the ages – He wants Jesus living again in a corporate man! May we be those who live according to the spirit of our mind, those who have the daily living of the corporate one new man, a living that corresponds to the reality in Jesus!
May we be those who daily deny themselves and spend time with the Lord in His word, allowing Him to infuse us, saturate us, and permeate us, to the extent that the mingled spirit spreads into our mind and becomes the spirit of our mind!
May the Lord gain among us the reality of the living of the new man, a group of people who have a living that is the reality in Jesus!
Putting Off the Community Life of the Old Man and Putting On the Community Life of the New Man
In Eph. 4 we see that to put off the old man doesn’t mean only to put off the old nature inside of us but also to put off the old way of life, our former way of living.
We need to put off the old man which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, and put off the lie (Eph. 4:21-25). In the world, there’s a certain way of living, and when we were saved, we were brought into yet another kind of living.
We need to put off the old way of life, the former way of living. We used to have a certain social life, a community life, which was in the old man and in the old way. But now we need to put off our old community life of the old man and put on the church life, which is the new community life of the new man.
The church life is the best community life, and we can all testify that we love the meetings of the church – we wish they would never end!
How many times we went to the meeting one way (sometimes upset, tired, bored, or even angry) and we didn’t want to leave the meeting, hanging around with the saints, since we got infused with the Triune God as the Spirit through the speaking and actions of the saints!
In the church life we put off the old man and put on the new man by living, speaking, and doing everything according to the mingled spirit. In the church life as the living of the new man we don’t have any ordinances or rules – we all learn to live by our mingled spirit, according to the new man in our spirit!
The church life is something new in this world – it is not of the old man and the old community life, but it is of God and it is in Spirit. I love the way bro. Witness Lee put it in Life-study of Ephesians (msg. 94),
The Lord’s intention today is not simply to gather us together, but to cause us to put off the life of the old man. We must put off not only our old nature but also our former manner of life. Our way of life must become absolutely new in nature, manner, and practice. The church life is the daily living of the new man in the new nature and manner. May we all look to the Lord and pray, “Lord, deliver my mind from vanity and fill it with the reality of the Spirit. Cause my mind to be occupied, possessed, and saturated by the reality of Jesus.”
The church life is the daily walk of the new man, a walk that is absolutely new in nature and in manner (Eph. 4:17-32). We need to put on the church life as the one new man by living in the mingling of the divine Spirit with our regenerated human spirit.
This new kind of life, the church life, is according to God Himself, and is saturated with God’s life and nature. This kind of living is also corporate, not individualistic (Eph. 4:24). In the church life you cannot live individually.
We call one another, we text one another, we fellowship together, and we need one another. Whenever we come together – and even when we are at home, by ourselves – we are in the constant mingling of the divinity with humanity, and we live out a new kind of life, a corporate life, the life of the new man.
May the Lord really gain this kind of life in all the localities on the earth today!
Lord Jesus, deliver us from the vanity of living the old life of the old man. Deliver us from living the old community life. We simply want to put it off, and we want to live the new life of the new man. Lord, fill our mind with the mingled spirit. Saturate us with the reality of Jesus, and fill us with Your Spirit. Lord, mingle Yourself more with us, and live in us the same kind of life You lived while being on earth. Gain the corporate life of the new man in all the local churches on the earth today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians (msgs. 71, 94), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 8 / msg 8, Arriving at a Full-grown Man (2) Growing Up into Christ in All Things, Learning Christ as the Reality Is in Jesus, and Being Renewed in the Spirit of the Mind.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore.
# Oh, the church of Christ is glorious, and we are part of it— / We’re so happy that the Lord has made us one! / There’s a Body in the universe and we belong to it— / Hallelujah, for the Lord has made us one!
# In the church of Jesus there is love for you, / Love most pure and tender, love most deep and true; / Why should you be lonely, why for friendship sigh, / When the church of Jesus has a full supply?
# Thus we must put off the old man / That we may put on the new; / Thus, renewed in mind and spirit, / We will bear God’s image true.
