All the requirements related to the believers – as revealed in the New Testament – are met by Christ living in us; in order for us to live the Christian life and serve God in our spirit in the gospel of His Son, we need to daily receive the divine supply.
There is no way for us to serve God unless we first receive the divine supply of the Body through the dispensing of the processed Triune God. In ourselves at best we can offer what Cain offered to God – our best works, the result of our endeavor, and our natural strength; but all these are not pleasing to God – He wants us to first be infused with Him, filled with Him, and saturated with Him, and then something will flow out from us as service to Him.
The greatest danger in our service to God is to serve by something other than the Lord’s supply; serving by our natural strength, natural zeal, and natural ability will bring in death and dissension rather than God’s economy which is in faith for the building up of the church.
We need to realize that our service to God in the gospel is actually our worship to God, and our God is a living and true God who is real and living in us day by day. In every aspect of our daily life we need to have God living in us, checking with Him, conversing with Him, and allowing Him to inwardly speak to us, control us, direct us, correct us, and adjust us.
Even in such small things as our thoughts, motives, intentions, and desires, if we allow the Lord to direct us and adjust us, we will experience God as a living and true God, and our living will be a testimony of the gospel that we preach.
This means that we need to live a life in our spirit, a life which bears the testimony that the God whom we worship and serve is living in the details of our life.
The standard for our living is not right vs wrong or doing good vs doing evil; we do this or say that simply because our God is living in us, and He says and does certain things. Amen! May we be revolutionised in our way of living daily, and may our service to God issue from our daily experience of the living and true God!
Coming to Serve God in Worship with a Blood-Purified Conscience in the Gospel
The Apostle Paul was separated unto the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1) and he declared that God is his witness, whom he serves in his spirit in the gospel of His Son (Rom. 1:9). Our realisation as believers in Christ should be that we are separated unto the gospel of God, and we should serve God in our spirit in the gospel of His Son.
The Greek word for “serve” in Rom. 1:9 means “serve in worship”, and the same word is also used in Matt. 4:10 (you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve), 2 Tim. 1:3 (I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers), Phil. 3:3 (for we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God), and Luke 2:37 (she was serving God with fastings and petitions night and day).
Preaching the gospel is not merely a work but a service to God, a worship to God; we serve God by worshipping Him – we serve in worship, and our serving God is our worship to Him. The first thing we need to do when we serve God is to have our conscience purified from any dead works by the precious blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
Our conscience needs to be purified not only from sins, offenses, and unrighteousness but also from dead works. To worship in dead religion or to serve any dead thing rather than God doesn’t require our conscience to be purified, but to serve God in spirit we need to make sure our conscience is purified and clear from any dead works, sins, and offenses.
Our defiled conscience needs to be purified by the blood of Christ so that we may serve God in a living way (see Heb. 9:14; 10:22; 1 John 1:7, 9; Acts 24:26; and 1 Tim. 4:7). The dead works cannot match the living God. We may do a lot of things “for God” but some of them may be “dead works” because they are not done in Christ and by Christ living in us.
We don’t want to end up like the believers in Sardis who had a name that they were living but they were dead and they were doing dead works. To serve God and worship Him we need to be in spirit for the preaching of the gospel; our New Testament service and worship are carried out in the preaching of the gospel.
The Gospel of God’s Son is nothing else but Christ Himself, the all-inclusive One; to serve God in the gospel is to serve Him in the all-inclusive Christ, enjoying Christ and ministering Christ to others.
Our gospel is a person, the all-inclusive Christ; we preach Christ as the gospel, announcing the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel (Acts 5:42; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29). Our only secret and our unique technique in preaching the gospel to the people in Europe and the Arab-speaking world is preaching Christ.
Every human being needs Christ: we were created to receive, enjoy, and be filled with Christ!
Lord Jesus, thank You for separating us unto the gospel of God. We want to serve You in our spirit in the gospel of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, we come to You to have our conscience purified from any dead works so that we may serve You as our living God! Cleanse us with Your precious blood from any sin, lawlessness, offense, and dead work so that we may serve You in a new and living way! Lord, we want to serve You in the gospel by announcing the all-inclusive Christ with all His unsearchable riches as the gospel!
We Serve God by Preaching the Gospel of God’s Son in our Regenerated Spirit
In the book of Romans Paul emphasises the human spirit, again and again, saying that whatever we do toward God must be done in our spirit, whatever we are must be in spirit, and whatever we have must be in spirit.
The genuine people of God, the real circumcision, is those who serve God in spirit and not in the cutting of the flesh (Rom. 2:29). We need to serve God in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6). Christ and the Spirit are with us not in our mind or soul but in our regenerated human spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16).
Whatever we are (Rom. 2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (8:10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (1:9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in this spirit. In order for us to serve God by preaching the gospel of His Son, we must be in our regenerated spirit.
Outside of the mingled spirit there’s deadness and oldness, but in our mingled spirit we are fresh and new. May the Lord rescue us from any deadness and oldness in our service to Him. May we be those who are burning in spirit, serving the Lord as a slave (Rom. 12:11). We need to serve not only in our spirit but with a burning spirit, an active spirit.
Paul said he serves God in “my spirit”,
Not the Spirit of God but Paul’s regenerated spirit. The spirit is different from the heart, soul, mind, emotion, will, or natural life. Christ and the Spirit are with the believers in their regenerated human spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). In this book Paul stressed that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (8:10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (v. 9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in this spirit. Paul served God in his regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, the life-giving Spirit, not in his soul by the power and ability of the soul. This is the first important item in his preaching of the gospel. (Rom. 1:9, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)
We need to serve God in our regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, the life-giving Spirit, and not in our soul by the power and ability of our soul. The first thing we need to realize in serving the Lord is that we need to be in spirit and do everything in the regenerated spirit.
In our soul we may be capable, knowledgeable, zealous, and self-righteous, but God wants that we serve Him in our mingled spirit, where He can work in us and through us. We need to learn to deny the soul with its ability and power and serve God in our regenerated Spirit by the indwelling Christ.
Our service shouldn’t be with knowledge, ability, and outward eloquence and wisdom, but with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power as we live and serve in the mingled spirit. We need to learn to serve God by preaching the gospel of His Son in our regenerated spirit!
Lord Jesus, may whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we do toward God be in our regenerated human spirit! Save us from serving God in deadness and oldness. Oh Lord, we want to be in spirit and serve You in spirit in the gospel of God’s Son! May our service to God be in our regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, and not in our soul by the power and ability of the soul. May we be burning in spirit, serving the Lord as a slave in the preaching of the gospel! Hallelujah for our mingled spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message for this week, and Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, “The Service in the Church for the Expression of the Body,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 3 / msg. 3, Serving God in our Spirit in the Gospel of His Son.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# “Tis by Thy blood we’ve been redeemed, / And by it sanctified. / Now is our conscience free from sin, / From dead works purified. (Hymns #1090)
# A spirit God has made for us / That we may worship Him, / Not striving, serving outwardly, / But seeking from within. (Hymns #865)
# Not objectively to worship, / But to serve Him inwardly; / Not to preach a Christ objective, / But Himself subjectively. / Not just by the Scripture serving, / But in spirit and in life; / Not by flesh, but by the Spirit / Filling, freeing from all strife. (Hymns #908)
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