We Labour on Christ by Exercising our Spirit, caring for the Deep Sense in our Spirit

The key to labouring on Christ, experiencing Christ, and producing Christ is exercising our spirit; we need to take care of the inner sense in our spirit, the deepest part of our being, and exercise our spirit in all things in order to labour on Christ day by day.

As believers in Christ, we all have been allotted a portion of Christ, and each one has his or her portion; no one has my portion, and your portion no one can have.

But we cannot be lazy in the land; we cannot be passive, waiting for the Lord to do something.

We all need to learn to cooperate with the Lord in our daily life, not only by having a time with Him in the morning but even more, by contacting Him throughout the day.

The apostle Paul was a pattern to us in this matter. He did not just preach the gospel – he preached the riches of Christ as the gospel, and he sowed the seed of Christ into people.

Then he watered the plants by his epistles, and he removed the weeds by his innoculating words.

He did not just love the Lord but sought to be found in Him, having not his own righteousness but the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.

He prayed not only that we see a vision of Christ with His unsearchable riches but also that Christ would make His home in our heart.

He did not only visit the churches but ministered as a labouring priest of the gospel to present every man full-grown in Christ.

He travailed until all the saints were conformed to the image of Christ and Christ was formed in them.

He was really like a farmer, working on the land to produce a crop that would bring forth the grains to be broken and grounded into fine flour mingled with oil to become an unleavened bread for God’s satisfaction and the supply of the saints.

We need to learn to labour as Paul did, labouring on Christ day by day both personally by enjoying and experiencing Him, and corporately by having a surplus of Christ to minister to others.

And may we learn to pray to give others life, being a life-giving member of the Body of Christ for the building up of the church.

We are in this all-inclusive Christ as our good land, each one has a portion of Christ that has been allotted to Him, and we simply need to enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and partake of Christ by exercising our spirit.

All this is in our mingled spirit, not merely in our mind.

There are many doubts in our mind, but the Lord as life is in our spirit.

The Key to Laboring on Christ, Experiencing Christ, and Producing Christ is Exercising our Spirit

How do we enjoy and experience Christ? What is the key to experiencing Christ, producing Christ, and labouring on Christ? It is not our mind.

We understand things with our mind, and the word of God enters our being through our mentality, but we actually need to exercise our spirit in order to labour on Christ.

Exercising our spirit is the key to labouring on Christ, experiencing Christ, and producing Christ (1 Tim. 4:7).

Exercising our spirit doesn’t mean that we need to all the time be reading the word of God and praying; exercising our spirit is something we can do in our daily life, even unceasingly, by contacting the Lord moment by moment.

We may have a time with the Lord in the morning and enjoy sweet fellowship with Him. Then, at breakfast, we need to continue contacting the Lord.

We should not leave our spirit; rather, we need to remain in our mingled spirit, one with the Lord.

In all things, we need to be one spirit with the Lord.

When we are at work, simply by saying, Good morning, to someone, we may minister something of Christ, for we exercise our spirit when we do that.

We can minister life to others in a normal way simply by remaining in our spirit. And people notice; they see the difference.

We don’t have to “preach” to them or “teach” them; they notice that we are a different person, and they will at one point come to speak with us.

The way for us to labour on Christ is to exercise our spirit to contact the Spirit, the reality of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land (Gal. 3:14).

The reality of the good land is the Spirit, the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit with our spirit. Christ is the all-inclusive One, the reality of the good land, and He is the Spirit with our spirit.

We can labour on Christ, experience Christ, and produce Christ as the rich produce of the good land simply by exercising our spirit.

May we know our spirit. May we treasure our spirit.

May we allow the Word of God to divide our spirit from our soul (Heb. 4:12).

When our spirit and our soul are divided, we will clearly see that our spirit is different from our soul.

Our spirit is not what we think, feel, or decide; our spirit is our inner man, the innermost part of our being, where Christ as the Spirit lives.

In spirit we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

May we learn to contact the Spirit in our spirit to enjoy Christ and labour on Him as the good land.

Throughout the day, in every situation and in all our circumstances, may we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and experience Him (1 Tim. 4:7; Rom. 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 4:11-13).

We need to refuse any myths and other things and simply exercise ourselves unto godliness, exercising our spirit.

When we live according to the spirit, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us.

Thank the Lord, we are one spirit with Him, and in Him we are made full – we have no lack in Him.

When we are in Christ by exercising our spirit, we are able to do all things, for He empowers us.

When we exercise our spirit during the day, no matter what happens, we will enjoy and experience Christ.

We may be delayed by those in front of us at the traffic light and we may have to wait longer at the grocery store or at the airport, but as we go through these frustrating things, we can exercise our spirit to contact the Lord.

In all our situations, we need to exercise our spirit.

Every situation is an opportunity for us to exercise our spirit and therefore labour on Christ to gain Him.

May we have many daily learning experiences, learning to exercise our spirit again and again.

Our children may be quite challenging, our job may be so demanding, and the things that we need to do are so many, but in all these things, we can still exercise our spirit.

We can call on the name of the Lord inwardly and live in the divine and mystical realm as we do all the things we need to do outwardly.

In our spirit, we are free to contact the Lord.

Outwardly, we need to do many things, but inwardly, we contact the Lord.

Our soul may be troubled and pulled in this direction or in that direction, but we can still turn to our spirit to enjoy the arbitrating peace of Christ operating in us.

May we be spirit-exercising people, those who learn to turn to the Lord again and again until our daily living with all its activities will be in spirit, in oneness with the Lord.

Lord Jesus, thank You for our spirit! Cause us to see that exercising our spirit is the key to labouring on Christ and experiencing Christ! Amen, Lord, keep us in our spirit today. Keep us exercising our spirit in all situations. We want to labour on Christ by exercising our spirit to contact the Spirit, the reality of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land. Thank You for being in our spirit, joined to us as one spirit. We want to enjoy You today. Keep us one spirit with You as we do this and that. May we learn to exercise our spirit in all situations and all things. Oh Lord Jesus, what about all the things of our daily living? We open to You. We want to exercise our spirit in all things to contact You and experience You. We take You as our life and person. We love You, Lord Jesus!

Pay Attention to the Deep Sense in our Spirit to Worship God in Spirit and Truthfulness

Thank the Lord that He has revealed to us the matter of our human spirit; it is His mercy that we know that exercising our spirit is the key to experiencing Christ and labouring on Christ.

So many Christians today, regrettably, do not know that they have a spirit, and they don’t know how to differentiate their spirit from their soul (Heb. 4:12).

So when they come to worship God, they cannot render Him the true worship that He seeks, for they do not exercise their spirit.

May we be those who worship God in spirit and in truthfulness by exercising our spirit and offering Christ as the reality wrought into our being (John 4:24).

In exercising our spirit, we need to learn the most important lesson of not paying attention to the things that come from our soul but pay attention to the deep sense in our spirit.

We may have a lot of thoughts, feelings, preferences, and decisions; we should not pay that much attention to these things but rather, pay attention to the deep sense in our spirit.

There may be many situations around us and many things may be happening to us and around us; we should not pay attention to these things so much but rather, pay attention to our spirit.

There are many things outside of us that demand our attention and care, and we need to take care of many things; however, these things should not occupy us.

We may need to do a lot of thinking, our feelings may be quite exercised, and our will needs to make many decisions; all these things should not occupy us.

Our focus should be our spirit.

We need to forget about all else and pay attention to the sense in our spirit; we should be guided and led not by the environment, our feelings, our thoughts, or the things around us, but by the deep sense in our spirit.

For example, one of our family members may be ill, and we may pray for them; however, as we pray, we may have a sense that the Lord wants us to pray for someone else or for the situation in the church.

We need to pay attention to the deep sense in our spirit; in this way, we worship God in spirit and truthfulness.

We should not seek to worship God in any part of our being other than our spirit.

When we come to the meetings of the church, we need to learn to pay attention to the inner sense in our spirit more than to the sense in our soul.

We need to learn to not be preoccupied with the things happening around us, the feelings in our emotions, the thoughts in our mind, and the decisions and desires in our will, but simply focus on the deep sense in our spirit.

When we do this, when we exercise our spirit and pay attention to the deep sense in our spirit, we will sense that we should simply praise the Lord for what He is and what He has done.

So we just praise Him, Praise the Lord! Christ is Victor! Hallelujah!

As we praise Him in this way, others will also be revived in their spirit, and no matter how many failures they had and how upset they are in their soul, they will touch the Lord and say, Amen, praise the Lord!

When we exercise our spirit in this way, touching the Lord deep within and following the deep sense in our spirit, we will worship God in spirit, and others will also be brought to worship God in spirit.

May we take this way in our meetings, paying attention to our spirit and exercising our spirit so that we may worship God.

May we learn to forget about our environment, our feelings, our thoughts, and our concepts, and simply focus on and take care of the deepest sense in our being, the sense in our spirit!

Lord Jesus, we want to worship God in spirit and in truthfulness to offer Him the worship that He desires. We turn from our environment, our feelings, our thoughts, and our concepts; we simply turn to You in spirit. We want to take care of the deepest sense in our being – the sense in our spirit. Oh Lord, we praise You! We exalt You! You are the Lord. You are the Victor! We forget about anything and anyone else and we simply focus on You! Jesus Christ is Lord! We exercise our spirit to contact You and praise You! We exercise our spirit right now to offer You the praise and worship that You desire! Amen, Lord, we want to follow the deep sense in our spirit in all things. May we pay attention more to our spirit and the deepest sense in our spirit than to anything that is around us.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 2, pp. 38-40, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life (2023 spring ITERO), week 7, entitled, Laboring on the all-inclusive Christ – “a Land flowing with Milk and Honey” – and Bringing the Surplus of the Riches of Christ to the Meetings of the Church for an Exhibition of Christ and the Corporate Worship of God.
• Recommended similar articles on this topic:
  – We Are Receiving the Promise of the Spirit, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Experiencing Christ by exercising our spirit, a portion from, The Ground of the Church and the Meetings of the Church, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – Do You Know How to Exercise Your Spirit? Read more at, Bibles for America.
  – The key to experiencing Christ – the human spirit, a portion from, The Key to Experiencing Christ–the Human Spirit, Chapter 1.
  – 21 Key Bible Verses Showing the Importance of Our Spirit, article at, Holding to Truth.
  – The human spirit in the experience of the Triune God, article by John Pester in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Christ of glory is my life, / He as the Spirit lives in mine, / That I with God be fully blent / And in His image shine. / I would exalt this glorious Christ, / Ever the Spirit I’d obey, / Making His glory fully known, / Filled with His grace for aye. (Hymns #509 stanzas 4-5)
  – Christ to me is so subjective, / Regulating all the day; / He corrects and rules and guides me, / And adjusts in every way. / Christ to me is so subjective, / All my thirst He satisfies; / With His riches He supplies me, / Thus God’s fulness testifies. (Hymns #537 stanzas 5-6)
  – We worship here according to / The inner consciousness, / Anointed by His Spirit now / His fulness we express…To God we offer Christ the Lord / Whom we experience; / With God we too delight in Him. / His light and sweetness sense. (Hymns #865 stanzas 5 and 7)