Put on the New Man by Being Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind through Prayer and the Word

The key for us to put off the old man and put on the new man is being renewed in the spirit of our mind; our inner man needs to be strengthened to invade, subdue, and occupy every part of our soul, and we need to be in God’s word with much prayer to be renewed in our mind.

Praise the Lord, we have been regenerated with the divine life, and now we are in the process of being renewed – we have the washing of regeneration and we’re in the process of being renewed by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

The renewing Spirit with our spirit imparts the divine essence of the one new man into all the parts of our inner being to make us a new creation. The one new man is in our spirit, and the Lord wants to spread this new man in all the parts of our soul.

So on the one hand God uses all the things and persons in our environment to consume our outer man, and He wants us to contact Him and be in His word in a prayerful way so that we may be renewed into our inner man.

May the Lord save us from merely going through things to have the outer man consumed (as do all human beings) but without being renewed in our inner man! Amen!

On the positive side, we need to learn to open to the Lord and allow Him to renew us; we need to spend time with Him in His word, and we need to prayerfully read the word and fellowship with the Lord in spirit through prayer.

On the negative side, the Lord is faithful to sovereignly arrange all things, situations, persons, and matters for our outer man to be consumed and be put off, so that our inner man may be renewed day by day.

The Lord knows that, for the new man to come into existence in a practical way, there has to be both the stripping and the renewing, both the consuming and the addition of the new element.

We also need to realise that God allows things to happen, and He may even allow turmoils and problems to happen in the church and in the family life, so that He may work Himself into us and renew us a little more.

We shouldn’t belittle our situations, neither should we try to change our environment; we should simply turn to our spirit and trust the renewing capacity of the divine life in resurrection.

He can do it; as long as we turn, open, and allow Him, He will do it – He will strip away and consume our old man, and He will renew our inner man.

Even more, He will spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will, so that we may be renewed in the spirit of the mind for the one new man.

The Key to Putting off the Old Man and Putting on the New Man is being Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind

According to what Paul tells us in Eph. 4:23, the key to putting off the old man (the old social life) and putting on the new man (the new church life) is in being renewed in the spirit of our mind.

This is a vital and crucial key for the practical existence of the new man.

Our regenerated spirit is a renewed spirit; the one new man has come into our spirit through regeneration, and our renewed spirit needs to be strengthened to invade, subdue, and occupy every part of our soul (Eph. 3:16-17).

After the apostle Paul presented to us that the new man was created by Christ on the cross in Eph. 2, in ch. 3 he prayed that we may be strengthened with God’s power through His Spirit into our inner man.

He realised that the new man Christ created on the cross is already in existence – he is the new man that is now in our spirit.

The new man that Christ created on the cross is now existent in our spirit, where Christ is; He is the Head of the new man, and He as the life-giving Spirit lives in our spirit.

So we need to be strengthened with power into our inner man (our mingled spirit) so that Christ may make His home in our heart.

Our inner man needs to be strengthened so that the Spirit with our spirit would spread into our mind, emotion, and will; the mingled spirit needs to penetrate and invade into all the parts of our soul which are not yet renewed.

We need to regularly pray this prayer to the Lord, telling Him every morning, Lord, grant me to be strengthened into my inner man with the same power that operated in Christ to raise Him from the dead, so that Christ may make His home in my heart through faith!

Amen, our inner man needs to be intensely strengthened so that it may invade and penetrate into the parts of our soul; in this way the renewing takes place.

When the mingled spirit spreads into our mind, emotion, and will, we put off the old man and put on the new man by being renewed in the spirit of our mind.

Christ as the life-giving Spirit is now in our spirit (as seen in 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17), and these two spirits mingle together to form the spirit of the mind. The life-giving Spirit and our human spirit mingled together spread into our mind to become the spirit of the mind.

The more the mingled spirit spreads into our mind, our mind has the Spirit as its controller and director, and our mind is subject to this Spirit; the Spirit is now called the spirit of the mind.

Our mind is being renewed through the realisation that Christ as the life-giving Spirit is mingled with our regenerated human spirit.

How wonderful it is to know that we have a mingled spirit – Christ became a life-giving Spirit, and He has come into us as the Spirit to be mingled with our spirit! This is not a small thing!

When we go out to preach the gospel, speak the word of God, visit the new ones, and speak to the saints, it’s not just us doing things but, as we exercise our spirit, the Spirit of God follows our spirit in the preaching of the word and in everything we do!

Hallelujah, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit! When the life-giving Spirit, who dwells in us and is mingled with our regenerated spirit, spreads into our mind, this mingled spirit becomes the spirit of our mind; it is by this mingled spirit that our mind is renewed!

Do we allow the mingled spirit to move into our mind, to spread in our mind, and renew our mind? Or do we keep Him in our spirit, and not let Him spread and saturate our mind? Oh Lord Jesus!

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to touch You, and we allow You as the Spirit to spread into our mind. Amen, Lord, may the mingled spirit – the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit – spread into our mind to become the spirit of our mind! We put off the old man and put on the new man by being renewed in the spirit of our mind! Hallelujah, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit! Lord, we are one spirit with You; strengthen us with power into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith! Amen, may more of the element of God spread into our mind, emotion, and will, so that we may be renewed for the one new man!

Praying and Reading the Bible in Fellowship with the Lord to be Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind

The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16). The regenerating Spirit indwells our spirit, and now we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

So the Spirit not only dwells in our spirit but has mingled Himself with our spirit.

And the more we pray, fellowship with the Lord, call on His precious name, and open our entire being to Him, the more this mingled spirit spreads into our mind – thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in this spirit that we are renewed for our transformation.

We can be renewed in our mind by setting it on our spirit. Furthermore, we can have the mind of Christ – the mind that was in Christ Jesus – by being transformed through the renewing of our mind.

This is what we should care for, being transformed by the renewing of our mind; this work the Lord Spirit is carrying out by moving and working in us through the divine life and the divine nature.

How can we be renewed in the spirit of our mind? The way for us to be renewed is through prayer and reading the Bible; as we pray and open to the Lord, and as we read the Bible, our old concepts are being removed and the divine thought is implanted into our mind.

The way for our mind to get rid of all our old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again is by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit.

When we read the Bible with the exercise of our spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to shine on us through the word of God, the Spirit will have a way to enlighten us and guide us.

When the Holy Spirit enlightens us as we pray and read the Bible daily, our mind is changed from the old to the new.

This renewing is a daily process, and it issues in the transformation in our spiritual life. On one hand we have already been washed through our regeneration, and on the other hand, we are still under the renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

The washing of regeneration washes away our old life, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit changes our mind to make us new, and this results in us being transformed.

Our problem today is mainly due to our mind; because of the way we think, we relate to the others in a certain way, we see the world from a certain viewpoint, and we do things the way we do.

We all have a disorderly mind, and we’re oblivious about it; we may have wild imaginations, deep thoughts, and strange feelings that are not related to what we actually want to do or where we want to be, but are dictated by our mind.

But praise the Lord, God Himself has become our life, and He is changing our disposition little by little; furthermore, He as the Spirit wants to renew our mind, so that we can have the proper concepts and pursue Christ in a proper way.

May we cooperate with the renewing work of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of our mind by contacting the Lord, praying to Him, prayerfully reading His word, and having fellowship with the Lord, so that the new element of God would be wrought into us and we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind!

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be renewed in the spirit of our mind for the practical existence of the one new man! We come to You in prayer and in Your word, and we allow You to infuse Yourself with Your thoughts and intentions into our mind. We give You permission, Lord, to spread into our mind and possess our mind. May our every thought be captured by the rich enjoyment in Your word! May the Holy Spirit have a free way to guide us and enlighten us as we pray and read the Word day by day! Amen, Lord Jesus, may we daily be renewed in the spirit of our mind!

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, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation,” ch. 3, 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:
  – 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. (Hymns #823)
  – Regenerated by the Lord, / Renewed in mind and heart, / He dwells within us as our life / True worship to impart. (Hymns #865)
  – The practicality / Of passing through the cross / Is in the mingling that blends / God’s essence into us. / The key is be renewed! / We have the mind of Christ! / The newness of God’s life, imbued, / Renews and rectifies. (Song on, One Person and One Way)