Serving God in our Spirit in the Gospel of His Son, the Subjective Gospel of Christ

This morning while enjoying the Lord in His word with the help of the ministry of the age I was touched with the fact that our priesthood of the gospel is a matter in our mingled spirit. Paul told us that God is his witness how he serves God as a priest in his spirit in the gospel of His Son (Rom. 1:9).

Whatever Paul did, spoke, and had was in his spirit; again and again, he emphasized that our spirit mingled with God’s Spirit is the key to doing everything and being everything in the Christian life. This is especially more so as we exercise our New Testament priesthood of the gospel; we preach the gospel by being in our mingled spirit, by exercising our spirit, and by following the Spirit with our spirit to speak what the Lord speaks to man.

It is here, in our mingled spirit, that we are inwardly supplied and strengthened with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21) so that Christ may make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:16-19) and we would be filled with all the fullness of God to overflow with the riches of Christ we have enjoyed to others as the gospel.

We should not exercise our soul or the abilities of our soul in preaching the gospel but we should exercise our mingled spirit to be filled with Christ and saturated with Him so that He may flow through us as the Spirit to touch others’ spirits as the gospel.

On the one hand we need to exercise our spirit, live in spirit, and do everything in our spirit when we preach the gospel, and on the other hand we need to be familiar and even filled with the contents of the gospel. Paul had a lot to speak concerning the gospel of God (the book of Romans is “the gospel of God”, also considered as “the fifth gospel”) because he was filled with the word of God.

We need to realize what the gospel of God according to Romans and speak of Christ coming into man to be man’s life subjectively so that man may become a son of God for the constitution and building up of the Body of Christ expressed as the local churches.

Serving God in our Spirit: Preaching the Gospel by being in our Regenerated Spirit

How do we serve God in the gospel? Do we merely exercise our spiritually trained mind according to the word of God to do what the Lord says and preach the gospel? Paul served God in his spirit in the gospel of His Son (Rom. 1:9), and this spirit refers to his human spirit regenerated by the divine Spirit.

For us to preach the gospel and thus to exercise our function as priests of the gospel we need to be in our regenerated spirit. Preaching the gospel is not convincing others that Jesus is God or that if people don’t repent they will go to hell; preaching the gospel is by the exercise of our mingled spirit.

As genuine people of God, we need to be in spirit (Rom. 2:29), and true circumcision is not that of the flesh but in the spirit. Our service to God should be not in the oldness of letter but in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6), and we need to be burning in spirit and not slothful in zeal (Rom. 12:11).

Since God today is in Christ as the Spirit with our spirit, whatever we do toward God must be done in our spirit, our daily walk must be in our spirit, and everything we have must be in spirit. Whatever we are (Rom. 2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (Rom. 8:10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (Rom. 1:9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in our mingled spirit, our human spirit regenerated by the divine Spirit.

We should not serve God in our soul by the power and ability of the soul, no matter how good we may think this is, but we should serve God in our regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ who is the life-giving Spirit with our spirit.

The way for us to worship and serve God is by using our spirit. The way to meet with the saints is not merely to come together and sing something or read the Bible but to exercise our spirit even before leaving home, singing and praising the Lord, and help others to exercise their spirit in the meeting.

One of the top ways to exercise our spirit is to sing; whether at home, on the bus, at work, or wherever we are and whatever we do we can sing to the Lord and our spirit will be exercised. We need to remain in the grace of resurrection to abound in the work of the Lord for the furtherance of the gospel.

Also, we need to help others to preach the gospel; every believer needs to go and preach the gospel and save people directly – no one can replace anyone else. The Lord is the true vine, we are the branches, and if we don’t bear fruit by exercising our spirit and flowing out Christ to others, we will be cut off – we will lose the rich enjoyment of Christ.

In all our serving and meeting with the saints, we need to exercise our spirit to sing, praise, pray, and speak for the Lord! We all need to remember that the first important item in his preaching of the gospel is serving God in our regenerated spirit and not in our soul with its power and ability!

Lord Jesus, we want to serve You in our spirit in the gospel. Save us from serving You in our soul by the power and ability of the soul. Make us spirit-exercising people, those who live in spirit, do everything in the spirit, and have their whole being in the mingled spirit. Amen, Lord, we MUST be in our spirit all day long and especially as we are about to preach the gospel! We treasure our spirit, we love to exercise our spirit, and we seek to be in our spirit and do everything in our spirit! Lord, may You be our witness that we serve You in our spirit in the gospel!

Serving God in our Spirit in the Gospel of His Son – the Subjective Gospel of Christ

First of all, we need to serve God in our regenerated spirit; then, our service to God as priests of the gospel has to be “in the gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9). What is “the gospel of His Son”? It is the entire gospel of God, unto which Paul was separated, and which is contained in the book of Romans; the book of Romans may be regarded as “the fifth gospel” (Rom. 1:1; 2:16; 16:25).

In the first four Gospels we see the incarnated Christ, Christ in the flesh, living among His disciples; in the gospel of God in Romans we see the resurrected Christ as the Spirit living within His disciples (Rom. 8:2, 6, 9-11, 16). In order for us to preach the gospel we need to be familiar with the gospel, especially with the gospel of God, the subjective gospel of Christ as revealed in Romans.

What we preach to others should not be stories or Christian doctrines but the gospel of God: sinful, fleshly people, can be made sons of God and conformed to the image of the Son of God. This is the central message of the book of Romans. We need the fifth gospel – the book of Romans – to reveal the subjective Savior within us as the subjective gospel of Christ.

The gospel we preach should not focused merely on forgiveness of sins but on the fact that God desires to save man and transform sinners in the flesh into sons of God in the spirit so that sinners would become sons of God and members of the Body of Christ meeting in the local churches as the local representations of the Body.

All of us need to function as priests of the gospel of God according to the revelation of the book of Romans; this means that we need to learn the elements and the details of the gospel, we need to experience the full content of the gospel, and we need to exercise our spirit to learn how to minister the gospel to others (Rom. 15:16).

May the Lord save us from preaching the low gospel in Christianity (the gospel of forgiveness of sins, salvation from hell, going to heaven, and having prosperity here on earth – “because God loves you”); may we be filled with the contents of the gospel of God, be constituted with the elements of the gospel, and experience the gospel so that we may minister Christ to others as the gospel for their full salvation, transformation, glorification, and building up.

The gospel of God is to make sinners sons of God to constitute the Body of Christ, which is expressed as the local churches; this is what we should speak as we serve God in our spirit in the gospel of His Son.

Lord Jesus, thank You for the fifth gospel – the gospel of God in Romans – which speaks of God’s intention to make sinners sons of God to constituted the Body of Christ, which is expressed as the local churches. We want to function as priests of the gospel of God according to Your revelation in Your gospel. Grant us to experience the full content of the gospel. Lord, we exercise our spirit to learn how to minister the full gospel of God to others so that many sinners would become sons of God, be transformed into His image, be built up in the Body of Christ, and live a normal church life in the local churches!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (pp. 1831-1834), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 6 / msg 6, Being Laboring Priests of the Gospel of God by 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 to strengthen this burden:
  # Exercise the spirit! / All the forms forsake; / Share with one another, / Each of Christ partake. / Exercise the spirit! / Natural sense renounce; / Serve with one another, / Christ the Lord announce. (Hymns #866)
  # May all the things that come to us daily / Unto the gospel turn, / That all may see we’re bound for the gospel / And of the Lord may learn. / May we be bold and fearless in spirit, / Speaking the Word of God, / Do it in love and do it in power, / While living in the Lord. (Hymns #1295)
  # An uplifted gospel have we, / One we’re not ashamed to proclaim. / Our gospel’s the highest of all, / For it is God’s goal and God’s aim. / No longer so lowly and poor, / We’ve found that we’re God’s holy sons. / No more will we preach as before; / Now each man on earth can be won. (Hymns #1292)