The way for us to daily walk according to the spirit and habitually have this kind of living is only by unceasing prayer, that is, by spiritually breathing all the time though praying unceasingly.
This is something we all have to do in a personal way before the Lord and with the Lord.
We cannot rely on the meetings of the church for our Christian life and living – we need to daily practice walking according to the spirit by having unceasing prayer, and the most simple prayer is to call on the name of the Lord.
When we walk according to the spirit, we fulfill God’s purpose and we are one spirit with Him for Him to carry out what is in His heart. God is not after a deliberate living according to His word but after Christ living in all His believers.
Christ is in us as our life and person, and as we daily take Him as our life and our person by continually turning to our spirit, we will walk in spirit and thus spontaneously and effortlessly live Christ.
Our human living is spontaneous and effortless, and we don’t have to think about it, just like our breathing. Our spiritual living should be the same. We should spontaneously live Christ by walking according to the spirit, and the most simple way for us to do this practically is to pray unceasingly, that is, always communicate and talk to the Lord about everything.
If we don’t live in the spirit, we spontaneously live in the flesh. Actually, by default we live in the flesh, and we are daily learning to live in the mingled spirit. Most of our daily life is spent in the flesh or in the self, for living Christ is not yet something that is very common to us.
We may try to fulfill God’s word, restrict ourselves from certain things and activities, and struggle to behave a little better, but we fail all the time.
The Lord wants us to give up trying and struggling and simply turn to Him in spirit so that He would do the living in us. He as a person wants to live in us and make His home in our heart so that He can be expressed through us.
Furthermore, we need to be primarily concerned not with doing things for God or how to do things, but we need to realise that God wants a people who live Christ by walking according to the spirit. In order for us to function normally as a member in the Body of Christ, we need to live according to the spirit by having unceasing prayer.
In order for us to live the Christian life, that is for Christ to live in us, we need to walk according to the spirit by praying unceasingly, always opening to the Lord in prayer about all things and all events.
It is not easy to really open to the Lord and tell Him about everything, for the world today encourages us to be individualistic and independent, but we need to persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.
Just love the Lord, open to Him in prayer about everything in your daily life, and thank Him for all things. This will allow Him to infuse you with Himself and become your inner constitution for Christ to make His home in your heart and be lived out in you.
Daily Walking According to the Spirit and not mainly Relying on our Corporate Enjoyment in the Church Meetings
We love the church life, for here we eat, drink, and breathe Jesus together with all the saints. In the church life we don’t practice merely to cook, serve, clean, help with practical things, or have activities together, but here we eat the Lord, we enjoy Him, and we exhibit His riches and enjoy His riches in and with the saints.
How wonderful it is to be in the proper and genuine church life, where Jesus Himself is our Shepherd, He leads us to waters of rest and to green pasture, and we as His sheep dwell securely, kept by His presence so dear!
We can have all kinds of meetings, including meetings in the homes or the saints, small group meetings, prayer meetings, vital group meetings, the Lord’s Table, prophesying meeting, conferences, blending times, trainings, etc.
Also, we can have prayer and fellowship in twos and threes, and we can have corporate morning revival and enjoyment together. It is so wonderful to just give ourselves to be in the church life, enjoying the Lord corporately.
We can cook meals and eat together, have BBQ together and enjoy some singing, have young people meetings and college meetings, have truth pursuit meetings, and meet in so many ways and with so many saints.
However, we need to realise that, as sweet and nourishing as the church life with all its meetings is, we cannot rely on the corporate enjoyment for our Christian life. We need to personally practice to walk according to the spirit day by day, and this will be the base for us to strongly and richly participate in the corporate enjoyment in the church life.
When we daily call on the name of the Lord and have unceasing prayer, we will live Christ, and no matter whether the atmosphere in the meetings is high or low, we can function to exhibit Christ and minister Him to others.
The corporate aspect of our Christian life is very helpful and needed, but what we often lack is a daily walk according to the spirit.
Unless we practice walking according to the spirit, our corporate enjoyment will diminish, and we will not be very solid in the Lord and in His word. We cannot rely solely on having corporate morning watch in the morning and meeting with the saints in the evening.
We need to enter into the actual practice of walking according to the spirit in our daily life and bringing others also into such a living. Whether there’s a high or low atmosphere of corporate enjoyment in the meetings of the church, we need to personally walk according to the spirit.
Corporate exercise and enjoyment definitely helps and encourages us in our Christian life, but it cannot replace our walking according to the spirit.
Our daily walk according to the spirit is like our breathing – we cannot stop breathing, so we cannot stop walking according to the spirit in our daily life.
When our breathing stops, our human life stops; spiritually speaking, when our living of Christ stops, when we stop living according to the spirit, this is an indication of spiritual death.
Many times we may be in places or situations where there may be many saints, for example, in a locality where there are not many saints or at work where the saints may not be around.
Just like the apostle John on the island of Patmos, we need to be in spirit and exercise our spirit when we are alone. We need to practice being in spirit when we are alone, and we need to have the unceasing prayer that keeps us in our mingled spirit.
Lord Jesus, we love You, we love meeting with the saints, we love enjoying You together with the saints, and we love eating, drinking, and breathing Jesus in the church life! Hallelujah for the wonderful, rich, and high corporate enjoyment of Christ in the church life! Oh Lord, may we be those who do not mainly rely on the corporate enjoyment of Christ but those who daily practice to live according to the spirit to live Christ in our daily living. Lord, may our corporate enjoyment not replace our personal relationship with You and our daily walk according to the spirit. Amen, Lord, keep us contacting You and living in spirit even when we see alone, by ourselves.
Unceasing Prayer is the way for us to Walk according to the Spirit in our Daily Life
What is the most practical and simple way for us to walk according to the spirit?
It is not by setting reminders or mentally remembering to live in spirit, neither is it by setting ourselves aside from everyone and everything else so that we we live in spirit. Rather, the way for us to walk according to the spirit daily, in our daily living, is for us to have unceasing prayer, that is, to pray unceasingly.
The way for us humanly to live is by the unceasing breathing, and the way for us believers to live Christ is to pray unceasingly. This is the key, the secret. This kind of prayer, the unceasing prayer, is not the kind of prayer that we set aside to be with the Lord a during a day.
Many times we can testify that after such an enjoyable time with the Lord in prayer in our set time with Him, we still come out of our spirit.
The unceasing prayer that we need is not the prayer for specific things or prayer for intercession. Rather, it is the unceasing prayer by calling on the name of the Lord and telling Him about all things.
This is the prayer that the Lord Jesus had when He was on earth – as He was walking, speaking, and doing things, He was always communicating with the Father, to the extent that many times the record in the Gospels says, and Jesus answered and said… Nobody previously asked the Lord anything, but He was always in a constant conversation in prayer with the Father, so He asked and answered to the Father all the time.
When we pray unceasingly we love the Lord and satisfy His desire to have a free way in us, giving Him the ground in our being.
When we call on the name of the Lord with some consideration, speaking to Him about what we are doing and thinking, we are in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), and we walk according to the spirit.
We need to continually walk and have our being according to the mingled spirit so that the indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit may have the opportunity to impart the riches of His life into every part of our being to transform us and replace us with Christ.
We need to practice unceasing prayer by having a constant, moment-by-moment prayer life with the Lord; this will keep us in the mingled spirit and will open the way for the Lord to impart Himself into us, spreading from our spirit into every part of our being.
The Lord Jesus is a real and living Person, and He lives inside of us; we need to pray unceasingly by simply talking to Him, calling on His name lovingly, and opening to Him, and He will have the ground to impart Himself into every part of our being and transform us as His life replaces our old life.
This is the way for us to be replaced, transformed, and reconstituted with Christ and become His bride, His counterpart.
Lord Jesus, keep us opening to You and talking to You all throughout the day and about all things. We want to walk according to the spirit by having a consistent, unceasing, moment-by-moment prayer. May we be those who constantly breathe spiritually by praying and opening to the Lord about all things. Oh Lord Jesus, come with us to work, to school, and wherever we have to go. Be so real to us in all things. Infuse us with Yourself much more and keep our being open to You to be transformed by You. Lord Jesus, we love You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1973-1974, vol. 2, pp. 455-460, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 3, Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit for the Body Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Hallelujah! By His light we see / Oh, how real, how full our Lord will be / If we’ll only turn to Him at every time, / in every day, / Every thing, in every way and— / Be specific for reality! / And be done with generality! / If we’ll just apply Him, we will see / He’s everything to us. (Hymns #1178)
# Bless me, Lord, with days and nights / Of talks alone with Thee, / With hours and minutes, moments too / That I would thus know Thee. / Bless me with Thy presence sweet, / For I have naught but Thee; / Yea, nothing left but Thee Thyself, / Lord, give Thyself to me. (Song on, Bless me, Lord, with days and nights)
# Lord Jesus, I long in Thy presence to live, / From morning to evening my one world Thou art; / O let not my heart be contented or rest / When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part. (Hymns #389)
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