Romans 8:16 is such a precious and rich verse in the Bible, showing us that the Spirit is with our spirit, witnessing with our spirit that we are children of God.
First of all, this shows us that God went through a process to become “the Spirit”, and now God as Spirit is in and with our spirit. These two spirits have become one in witnessing that we, human beings regenerated with God’s life, are children of God.
We are not only children of men but we are children of God, God-men, God’s species. We now have another life, the divine life, in our spirit, and we are spiritual people exercising their spirit to live by their spirit and do everything in spirit.
May we really see that every genuine believer – and this includes us – is a God-man, a man joined to the Lord as one spirit, one learning to live one spirit with the Lord!
In the Old Testament Abraham walked with God, and he lived in God’s presence; today in the New Testament age we live one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17) because we have Him not only outside of us but inside of us, in our spirit!
What a privilege, what a responsibility, and what an opportunity we have today as believers in Christ, to live one spirit with the Lord as the Spirit in our spirit!
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in Us as the Spirit
In Eph. 4:6 we see that the Father is in us, in Col. 1:27 Christ is in us, and in Rom. 8:9 the Spirit dwells in us. The entire Triune God is in us, but this doesn’t mean that “we have three persons dwelling in us”. Rather, because we have Christ, we have the Father, and because we have the Spirit, we have both Christ and God the Father.
This is a mystery – Christ in us as the Spirit with our spirit. The entire Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – is in us as the Spirit with our spirit. Now the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Christ today is the wonderful Spirit in us!
God is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit now, and the Spirit is the wonderful Spirit with our spirit. This Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God; this Spirit encourages us, strengthens us, reminds us, and takes us on in our Christian life by constantly witnessing with our spirit, Yes, You are a Child of God, a God-man!
Hallelujah for the wonderful Triune God in us as the Spirit with our spirit!
The Indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of Life and the Life-Giving Spirit
In Rom. 8:2 we see that the Spirit is the Spirit of life, and in 1 Cor. 15:45b this Spirit is the life-giving Spirit.
On the one hand, the Spirit with our spirit is the Spirit of life. Life is mysterious – if you have it, you have life, but if you don’t have it, you cannot claim to have it. A dead person simply doesn’t have life, but a living person doesn’t need to claim he’s living.
When we opened to the Lord and received Him into us, the Spirit of life came into our spirit and now we have the divine life. We cannot “brag about it” and say, Look, look, I have life! but there are many signs of the divine life in us that are manifested, and everyone sees we have another life, God’s life, in us!
On the other hand, the Spirit with our spirit is the life-giving Spirit, imparting life to us all the time. When the life-giving Spirit came into our spirit, our spirit became life (Rom. 8:10); as we set our mind on the spirit, our soul is becoming life (Rom. 8:6); eventually, He will transfigure our mortal body by filling it with life, giving life to our mortal body (Rom. 8:11).
As we practice to live one spirit with the Lord and set our mind on the spirit, exercising our spirit every day to live in spirit, our whole being is gradually being filled with the divine life by the life-imparting of the life-giving Spirit with our spirit.
We will eventually be swallowed up by the divine life, becoming beings of life, those who live every moment of the day in their mingled spirit!
The Spirit Witnesses with Our Spirit
The Spirit who “was not yet” in John 7:39 is not the Spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in us and constantly imparting the life supply to our inward being. From the time of our regeneration, the Spirit started to witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Before our regeneration, the Spirit was outside of us, testifying to us of God, Christ, and the spiritual things. But when we received Christ into us, the Spirit came into us and daily witnesses with our regenerated spirit that we are children of God.
This Spirit is the Triune God with human nature, human living, Christ’s all-inclusive death, and Christ’s resurrection – all compounded in the Spirit. We today have such a rich, bountiful, wonderful, and awesome Spirit with our spirit.
How can we enjoy Him? It is not merely by knowing and understanding this matter, and it is not merely by practicing God’s presence (as in, practicing to live in God’s presence).
We are more privileged than the saints in the Old Testament when people could live in God’s presence, and God was outside of them. Today we have God within us as the Spirit with our spirit, and we can live one spirit with Him!
We don’t need to merely be aware of God’s presence and live in this light, but we can just exercise our spirit by calling on the name of the Lord, pray-reading His Word, and fellowshipping with the Lord through prayer, singing, praising, etc. We need to learn to practice to live one spirit with the Lord by being in our spirit all the time!
Hallelujah, the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, and we are! Also, we learn to live one spirit with the Lord in our daily life, in big things and small things, giving Him the first place and turning to Him in our spirit all the time.
Thank You Lord for being the Spirit with our spirit, constantly witnessing that we are children of God. You are the Spirit of life bringing life into our mortal being, and You are the life-giving Spirit constantly imparting the divine life to every part of our being. Keep us turning to You, Lord, and living one spirit with You today. May we have an unveiled face beholding You, living in Your presence, and being one spirit with You in all the details of our daily life. Hallelujah, the Spirit is with our spirit!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: Portions in, The Completing Ministry of Paul (ch. 7), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, “The Completing Ministry of Paul“, week 4 entitled, The Spirit with our spirit.
- Hymns on this topic:
# 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. / Oh, He’s the wonderful Spirit in us!
# This Spirit also is the pledge, / Our earnest and our foretaste true. / He witnesses that we are sons, / With God’s inheritance in view.
# Of the Spirit born in spirit, / As the sons of God indeed, / We possess the Holy Spirit, / Dwelling in us for all need. / Yet we still need more of Him, Lord, / That we may be full of Thee; / May Thou fill us with Thy Spirit, / Give us life abundantly.
About aGodMan
1 Cor. 15:45 …The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
‘This Spirit is not only the Spirit of life; He is also the
One who imparts life. He is life-giving!’ (M.R.)
Hallelujah for this life giving Spirit who testifies with
our spirit that we are children of God!!!(Rom:816)
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Thank the Lord that we can enjoy Him as the Spirit dwelling within us as our life and not merely His presence outside of us! We can even take Him as our Person–"a person is very definite, whereas life is somewhat abstract." – The Christian Life ch. 11