All the regenerated believers in Christ are priests to God, and the primary matter related to a priest is that he is one who contacts God, is filled with God, is saturated with God, and lives a life in the mingling of God with man.
A priest is one who serves God in all his daily living; serving God is not a profession or a job for him but he does it full-time, all the time. But how can we serve God all the time? How can we live in this “mingling of God with man”? How can we be priests to God in reality and practicality in our Christian life?
In Christianity today there are many concepts and practices that are similar to those in paganism, including a special “class of priests” who wear a particular kind of clothes and do a special set of activities while others passively watch. Being a priest is a matter that was lost and spoiled in Christianity, and so whenever someone hears that “believers are priests” he either stays away from this topic or automatically thinks of a special class of people.
May the Lord show us that through regeneration we have received Christ as the Spirit into our spirit, and we have been born again: another life came into us. For us to serve God as priests, we need to see that we have a mingled spirit – the divine Spirit is mingled with our human spirit!
We serve God not in and according to our mind, our thinking, our opinion, our feeling, or our will, but according to and in our spirit. The Lord Jesus told us clearly that God is Spirit – this is the nature of His essence, and all those who worship Him or serve Him need to do so in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24).
As believers in Christ, we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), and now we need to know our mingled spirit, live in spirit, and walk according to the spirit. The union of the two spirits – the divine Spirit and the human spirit – is the deepest mystery in the Bible and the focus of the divine economy.
Today we would like to explore this matter further and be enlightened by the Lord about the importance of our spirit.
The Deepest Mystery in the Bible: the Union of the Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit
Throughout the Bible, we see that God’s desire is to be one with man and even to be in man so that man and God would have one life and one living, thus God is being expressed through His corporate people.
But how can God be one with us and how can we be one with God? The Bible tells us that we who are joined to the Lord are one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17); we are one spirit with the Lord by being joined to Him through regeneration. The union of God and man is altogether a matter of the union of two spirits, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man.
Man is composed of three main parts: a physical body to contact the physical world, a soul to contact the psychological world, and a human spirit to contact God. God Himself is Spirit, and if we want to contact the Lord and be one with Him we can do so only in our spirit.
God is Spirit and man has a spirit (Prov. 20:27; 1 Thes. 5:23); through regeneration, the divine Spirit came into and was mingled with our human spirit. Now our human spirit is a mingled spirit: the Lord’s Spirit is mingled with our human spirit. This is a very deep mystery in the Bible, and it is difficult for man to comprehend, but it is the only way God and man can be one.
All our spiritual experiences after we are saved, such as our fellowship with God, our prayer to Him, our living with Him, our obedience to Him, and our contacting God are all in this mingled spirit. Furthermore, the Bible tells us that we should “live by the spirit” and “walk by the spirit” (see Rom. 8:4-6; Gal. 5:16); this “spirit” is not merely the divine Spirit but the mingled spirit, the Lord’s Spirit and our spirit mingled into one.
The focus of God’s economy is the mingled spirit; everything of God is made real to us and can be experienced by us in our mingled spirit.
If we merely exercise our eyes to read the Bible and our mind to understand it, we will not touch the essence of the Bible, which is God as Spirit (John 6:63; 4:24). But when we exercise our spirit to pray over the word of God, we see a vision of God’s economy, we touch the Lord, and we experience Him.
The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16); this Spirit is joined to our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). In a very mysterious way, when we received the Lord Jesus and were born again of the Spirit, our human spirit was joined to and mingled with the divine Spirit, and now we have a mingled spirit.
We need to see a vision of the mingled spirit and live in the spirit, walk according to the spirit, and do everything in this mingled spirit. We need to pray for other believers to know their mingled spirit and live in their spirit.
If we see that we have a mingled spirit, our Christian life and living will be revolutionized; we will stop doing things and trying to understand things and we will focus on knowing the Lord and experiencing Him in our mingled spirit.
Lord, unveil us to see the deepest mystery in the Bible: the union of the divine Spirit with our human spirit! Remove the veils of religion and human opinion and give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of You. Oh Lord Jesus, how we praise You for coming into us as the Spirit to be joined and mingled with our spirit. Praise You for our mingled spirit. We want to know our spirit and live in our spirit so that we may truly know You and experience You today as priests. Praise the Lord, we are one spirit with the Lord!
Serving God as Priests by Knowing our Spirit and Living in our Mingled Spirit
If we would serve God as priests we need to realize that our service to Him should not be according to our opinion, feeling, and desire; rather, our service to God as priests should be in our mingled spirit. We need to see a vision of the mingled spirit, know our spirit, live in our spirit, and walk according to the mingled spirit.
The Bible is not a manual for us to serve God, neither is it a book of instructions on how to be a priest; the Bible is the word of God which requires the exercise of our spirit when we read it so that we may see the light in God’s word, receive the life supply from the Lord, and experience Him in our mingled spirit.
Whatever God wants to do and accomplish is related to our mingled spirit; for us to have any genuine spiritual experience of Christ and for us to serve God as priests we need to know our spirit, live in our spirit, and walk according to our spirit. It is in our spirit that we are being built up as a dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:21-22).
Many today live according to the flesh, behaving in the lusts of the flesh; these are the lowest type of people. Others live according to their mind and will, and they have a somehow higher living; they reason, live by their logic, and do things in an organized way, and they have a slightly higher living than those who live according to the flesh. Still others live according to their conscience, having a moral and ethical living, and they may be considered the highest type of people.
But we as believers are even higher than this, for we live not only according to our conscience but according to the mingled spirit. When we live according to our mingled spirit we have the highest morality, the best virtues, and the most excellent living because God lives in us and we express God.
Our Christian life and church life should be in the mingled spirit, the focus of God’s economy. Our mingled spirit is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 6:17); when we live in our mingled spirit, the Lord is mingling Himself with us and we express Him.
May the Lord have mercy on us and shine on us through His piercing word so that our spirit would be divided from our soul and we would choose to live in the spirit and walk according to the spirit to be priests serving God in reality.
Lord Jesus, in Your mercy, give us a vision of the mingled spirit. Cause us to see that the divine Spirit is joined and mingled with our human spirit, and we are one spirit with the Lord. Oh Lord, may we live in the realization of what happened to us at our regeneration! May we know our spirit, exercise our spirit, and live in our spirit so that we may serve God as priests! May we have our daily life and living in the focus of God’s economy, our mingled spirit! Lord, may all the saints realize they have a mingled spirit, and may they live in spirit to be priests in reality!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 1, “Basic Training,” pp. 314-315, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 2 / msg 2, The Definition of a Priest.
- Recommended further reading: what does it mean to be a born again Christian? (via holdingtotruth.com)
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Now the Triune God has come to dwell within / As the wonderful Spirit in us. / We are mingled with the Lord, we’re one with Him / As the life-giving Spirit in us. (Hymns #1113)
# Lord, teach us to discern the spirit, / To us Thy living Word so give / That soul from spirit be divided / And in the holiest place we’ll live. (Hymns #746)
# Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
About aGodMan
We may say that since we are joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with the Lord. This means that the spirit, which is the mingling of our spirit and the Lord’s Spirit, is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit; it is the Lord’s Spirit mingled with our spirit and our spirit mingled with the Lord’s Spirit. The New Testament, in verses such as Romans 8:4-6 and Galatians 5:16 and 25, often uses this word, the spirit, which is the mingled spirit, to speak concerning what the Lord is to us and concerning our experience of the Lord. All our spiritual experiences after we are saved, such as our fellowship with the Lord, our prayer to Him, our living with Him, and our obedience to Him, are in this spirit, the Lord’s Spirit and our spirit mingled into one. (Witness Lee, Life Lessons, vol. 3, lsn. 30, p. 45)