The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah shining in us and enlightening our inward parts

The Spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the innermost parts of our inner being (Prov. 20:27); our spirit is God’s lamp within us, and God’s Spirit is in our spirit shining into all the parts of our inner being to enlighten and expose and enliven us. Amen!

This is a great gem in the book of Proverbs: wow, there is a spirit in man, and this spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit, searching all the innermost parts of our being! Hallelujah!

When we come to the book of Proverbs, we do not merely want to learn principles to improve or cultivate our natural human life; rather, we want to cultivate our new man.

We believers in Christ have two men in us – the old man we received through our human birth, which we develop throughout our Christian life, and the new man which we received through regeneration.

When we come to the book of Proverbs, we need to be in our new man, in the mingled spirit; if we merely come to gain more knowledge, we may want to cultivate and improve our natural human life, which leads to self-improvement and the building up of the self.

But if we come to the book of Proverbs in our regenerated, mingled spirit, we will gain some gems, some nuggets, and some excellent principles to be applied in spirit so that we may live a life of godliness.

We need to live a godly life, a life full of godliness, a life for the expression of God in man.

We need to live a life that is God-like, a life that is God manifested in the flesh; this is done not by improving our human behaviour by reading the word of God but by exercising our spirit over the word of God to enjoy Him, partake of Him, be infused with Him, and have Him wrought into us so that He may live in us and be expressed through us.

We cannot express God when we live by and in our natural human life; just as a monkey cannot express a man but rather do a poor imitation for a short time, so our natural human life cannot express God.

But praise the Lord, we can come to the word of God in our regenerated new man, we can exercise our spirit to receive the word into us by means of all prayer and petition, and we can cultivate the new man for us to live a life of godliness, thus expressing God, not in a deliberate way but spontaneously, by our living in and by another life! Hallelujah!

May the Lord enlighten us, expose us, and infuse us through His Word, and may we be open vessels to Him so that He may work in us, work Himself into us, and have a way to live in us and through us a life of godliness, a life that expresses God!

The Spirit of Man is the Lamp of God Shining in Him – we Respond to His Shining by Living according to the spirit!

Prov. 20:27 is a wonderful verse showing us that the spirit of man (our human spirit) is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the innermost parts of our inner being.

We cannot live a godly life without exercising our spirit, without living in our mingled spirit. We need to realize that, as believers in Christ, we have a human spirit, and in our spirit, we are joined to the Lord as one spirit.

Without living in our spirit, without living according to the spirit, we cannot live a godly life; it is impossible to live a godly life without knowing and exercising our spirit.

In 1 Tim. 4:7-8 Paul talks about our need to exercise ourselves unto godliness; bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things!

Godliness here is a godly living, which is related to the exercise of our spirit; this is profitable for all things.

For us to live a godly life, we need to learn and know our spirit, and we need to live in our spirit, exercising our spirit. Man’s spirit is God’s lamp within man (Matt. 25:1).

In Matt. 25 we see the ten virgins, each of them having their own lamp; this lamp is our spirit. Each one of us has our lamp, our spirit.

The light shining within man’s regenerated spirit is God Himself (1 John 1:5). Our spirit is the lamp, but the light that shines forth from the lamp is God; God Himself as the Spirit came into our spirit to regenerate our spirit and become the light shining in us.

Just as a lamp contains light and expresses it, man’s spirit was created to contain God and express Him. Light is not of us; we are not the light – God is the light.

But we are created with a lamp, our spirit; through regeneration, we receive God as light into us, and this light shines in us, within us, and through us.

God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. He as the light is within us, within our spirit as the lamp, and this light shines forth from the lamp, which is our spirit.

In order for the divine light to shine into our inward parts, God’s Spirit as the oil must soak our spirit as the wick and “burn together” with our spirit (Rom. 8:16; 12:11).

Praise the Lord, He has come into us as the Spirit to mingle Himself with our spirit and burn together with our spirit to shed light in all the inward parts of our being!

The Spirit witnesses with our spirit; the Spirit is with our spirit, and we can and should be burning in spirit.

If we respond to the spirit’s shining, we will walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4).

We have to allow God’s Spirit, which is typified by the oil to soak the wick, which is also our spirit, our human spirit so that we can burn together.

God’s Spirit is the oil, and our spirit is the wick; these two are mingled and burn together – and together they bring forth the light.

In this way, through the Spirit’s shining, we can walk according to the spirit. The Spirit of God is also a lamp, with a sevenfold intensity to His shining (Rev. 4:5).

In Rev. 4:5 there are seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne; that is the Spirit of God in the stage of intensification, in the time of Revelation; the Spirit of God has been intensified sevenfold and is burning with a sevenfold intensity.

Our regenerated spirit is a lamp indwelt by the Spirit of God, who is also a lamp; man’s spirit and God’s Spirit are both lamps, together enlightening our inward parts.

Praise the Lord for the Spirit with our spirit, the Spirit in our spirit.

May we be those who respond to the Lord’s shining as the Spirit in our spirit, the Spirit shining in the lamp of Jehovah in us, by living according to the spirit.

May we not live according to the flesh, having our only concern the pleasures of the moment.

May we not live according to our soul, being elated when things go well for them but depressed when the circumstances are not favourable.

May we live according to the spirit, the mingled spirit; may we be those few who realize that the lamp of Jehovah is in us, and the Spirit shines in our spirit to enlighten all the inward parts of our being to bring in God’s light and element into us. Amen!

Hallelujah, the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the innermost parts of our inner being! Praise You, Lord, for coming into us as the Spirit to mingle Yourself with us and bring in the divine life and light into our being. We want to no longer live according to the flesh with its desires or according to the soul with its ups and downs. We choose to live according to the mingled spirit. Amen, Lord, we respond to Your shining as the Spirit in our spirit by living according to the spirit. Shine in us and on us, Lord; shine in all the inward parts of our being, search us, and infuse us with Your very self. We say Amen to Your shining!

Opening to the Spirit with our spirit to Shine and Enlighten our Inward Parts and Infuse us with God

The Spirit with our spirit wants to shine and enlighten every part of our soul; if we are going to live a godly life, our inward parts need to be enlightened and shined upon.

We cannot remain in our darkness, in our dimness; we need the spirit to shine. We need God’s Spirit to shine, scatter all the darkness, all the shadow from us.

May we be like the seeker in the Song of Songs, yearning for the shadows to flee away.

If we want to live a godly life, a life of godliness, we need to allow the Spirit with our spirit to shine in us and expose all darkness, remove all shadows, and shine away anything that doesn’t correspond to Him.

Sometimes, when God wants to shine in us, we may not open to Him; He may want to shine in our mind, emotion, and will, but we may not open to Him.

If we don’t open to His shining, even though we may read the Bible and pray for a while, we may sometimes have nothing to say.

When we exercise our spirit to pray, there is a shining that takes place; the Lord may shine on our thoughts, searching through our innermost parts to enlighten us, expose us, and infuse us with Himself.

If we respond to the Lord’s shining in us, we will walk according to the Spirit.

But if we close up the areas that the Lord wants to shine on and expose, the Spirit cannot fulfil its function of shining.

If we exercise our spirit properly, the spirit will shine in us to expose our thoughts, our attitudes, our loves, our desires, and our yearnings.

In His light, we can confess our sins, and as He shines within us, we can simply agree with the light and allow the divine light to shine in us and through us.

The more we keep praying, the more we are enlightened; the more we contact the Lord, the more our inward parts are searched by the Lord.

After a time of prayer and opening to the Lord in His word, we will feel bright and transparent, filled with God. Praise the Lord!

We need to spend time contacting the Lord, turning to Him, and exercising our mingled spirit, so that the Spirit may shine on us and in us until all the darkness and shadows are gone, and we are directly before His face.

When we exercise our spirit to pray properly, there is a lamp shining (Eph. 6:18; 1:17-18; 5:8-9).

As we pray, our spirit – the lamp of God – functions as a shining lamp, searching all the parts of our soul.

The best way for us to exercise our spirit is to pray; when we pray, the divine light in our spirit begins to shine.

We may see things around us or even in us that we cannot explain; we may realize that we need a lot of help and explanations, but everything becomes clear when we enter into our spirit, the sanctuary of God – it is here that He shines and searches our inward parts and makes all things clear!

When we enter into our spirit, when we exercise our spirit to pray and contact the Lord, what happens is that the Lord shines on us, enlightens us, and searches all our inward parts.

The more we exercise our spirit in prayer, the more we are enlightened (2 Cor. 4:16); the lamp shines on our thoughts, our emotions, and our will.

As the Lord shines in us, our inward parts are thoroughly searched by the Lord (Psa. 139:23-24).

May this be the prayer in our time with the Lord, search us, Lord, and know our heart; try us and know our anxious thoughts. Amen, may the Lord search us, enlighten us, and see if there is any harmful way in us, to lead us on the eternal way.

Even though we may be busy these days, trying to do this and that, and not having enough time during the day to get all things done, we need to set time aside to be with the Lord and allow Him to shine in us.

We need to open to the Lord and allow Him to shine in us and search through our mind, what we are thinking, what we feel, our emotions, what we love and hate, and our decisions. For this to happen, we need to spend adequate time with Him.

We cannot just grab a doughnut and a coffee in our time with the Lord; we can’t rush our time with the Lord, we can’t just say a short prayer and that’s it.

We need to spend enough time with Him and let His light shine and search through all our inward parts until we are full of light, filled with God.

He will expose our speaking, our loose talk, our critical comments, and our gossip; He will shine over our attitude toward others, and He will expose our wrong motives.

Oh Lord, may we allow Him to shine in us to expose and enlighten us to infuse us with Himself!

Lord Jesus, we desire to live a godly life for the expression of God, the manifestation of God in the flesh. We open our mind to You; shine in us and expose our thoughts, opinions, and our motives. We open our emotion and feelings to You; shine and enlighten us to expose anything that is not according to You. Amen, Lord, shine within us; we exercise our spirit to pray and read Your word, and we allow You to shine and expose anything that is not according to You. Search us, oh God, and know our heart. Try us and know our anxious thoughts. See if there’s any harmful way in us, and lead us on the eternal way. We say Amen to Your word. We say Amen to Your shining. Shine in us until we are full of light and transparent, filled with God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 1, “Life Messages, volume 2″, ch. 75, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 10, Living a Godly Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643)
  – Have Thine own way, Lord, / Have Thine own way; / Search me and try me, / Master, today. / Whiter than snow, Lord, / Wash me just now, / As in Thy presence / Humbly I bow. (Hymns #449)
  – Jesus, O living Word of God, / Wash me and cleanse me with Your blood / So You can speak to me. / Just let me hear Your words of grace, / Just let me see Your radiant face, / Beholding constantly. (Song on, Jesus, O living Word of God)