When God created man, He intended man to live, act, and have his being in and by his spirit, and the soul and the body would be under the rule of his spirit. Adam had fellowship with God in his spirit every day!
But when man fell by over-exercising his soul and not exercising his spirit, his soul became the self independent from God, his body became the flesh fighting against God, and his spirit was deadened (paralyzed, not functioning at all). This is the condition we are born in – our spirit is inactive, our self is declaring independence from God, and our flesh is totally against God.
But when we are regenerated, God as life comes into our spirit and activates our spirit (John 3:6). We then begin the long process of transformation and recovery of our entire human being, so that our spirit would be the prominent part, the part taking the lead, and the soul and the body would be under the spirit.
But in this process, in our daily life and in the church life, whenever we exercise our spirit to touch the Lord, we enjoy Him, and we do our best to flow Him forth – something interesting happens. Even though our spirit is pure and is mingled with God’s Spirit, what comes out is “flavored” and colored with elements of our soul, our flesh, our self, etc.
So then what comes out is impure, and we may have “a proud spirit”, “a rude spirit”, etc. We need to learn to deal with the passages of the spirit, so that when the spirit flows out others would receive more life and not some self-colored or flesh-flavored spirit.
I recommend the book, The Experience of Life, by Witness Lee, pp. 284-285, to see more on this topic.
We Need to Know the Spirit
We need the Lord to enlighten us so that we may see certain aspects related to our spirit which we didn’t know yet, so that we may know how to deal with our spirit. What is the spirit, the human spirit? The spirit is the innermost part of our being and the loftiest part of our tripartite being.
Also, the spirit is our most genuine part – our genuineness, our real person, is in our spirit. The spirit is the genuineness of man, and you can tell a person by his spirit. What people put on as gestures, clothes, words, attitudes, moods, etc are not the real thing – the genuine part is a man’s spirit!
As 1 Cor. 2:11 says, Who among men knows the things of men except the spirit who is within him? The time when we release our spirit in the most genuine way is when we lose our temper – and that’s the real YOU, be it the ugly you. This is the time you’re genuinely expressed and released.
Today in this modern world and contemporary society, due to our culture, refinement, education, etc, we are not so genuine – most people live in a pretension, putting on a facade. It is crucial for us as Christians to learn to know our spirit, live in our spirit, and release in our spirit in all genuineness (not in an ugly way, though) – we need to allow our spirit to flow forth!
The unbelievers may be proud, but the believers have a spirit of pride. The unbelievers may be angry, but the believers have a spirit of anger. Whenever we release our spirit, it may come out in a wrong way depending on what it “picks up on its way out” in our undealt-with being!
Sometimes you may see a spirit of anxiety (when a believer is anxious), a spirit of jealousy, a rebellious spirit, a coarse spirit, a crooked spirit, a boastful spirit, a dominating spirit, a rude spirit, etc. The kind of spirit we have reveals the kind of man we are.
We Need to Deal with Our Spirit
Why are we most genuine when we lose our temper? Why is the spirit within us sometimes released and expressed in an improper way?
Because of man’s fall, Satan came in through sin and degenerated our body into flesh and corrupted our soul into the self. Our spirit is not only deadened, paralyzed, and inactive, but it is enveloped and encased within by the self and the flesh.
Our spirit at the time of our regeneration is tightly and securely surrounded by the self and the flesh, and for the spirit to be released throughout our Christian life we need to deny the self and take up the cross and allow it to be applied to us! We need to deal with our spirit by dealing with the passages of our spirit, the passage way of our spirit.
The Lord Jesus told John and James – after they suggested that He would call fire on the un-receiving cities – you don’t know of what spirit you are (Luke 9:54-55).
Our regenerated spirit as the innermost part of our being, is pure and undefiled – but surrounding our spirit are the soul and the body, both of which have been mixed and corrupted with the wicked elements of Satan, and they are filthy and corrupt.
When we release our spirit, when the spirit comes forth, and passes through the soul and the body, it becomes contaminated by the filthiness and corruption of our fallen being. Instead of the spirit being pure – as it is at the origin – it bears certain filthiness, corruption, impurity, impropriety, and other undesirable conditions.
This is why we need to deal with our spirit by dealing with the passageways, the issues, the exit, the channel, the soul and the body, our fallen human being. Our words may not be wrong, but our spirit is wrong, the issue of our spirit is wrong.
When we deal with the flesh it is like shaving; when we deal with the self is like skinning; when we deal with the natural constitution is like “cutting into pieces” our natural being. But when we deal with the spirit, it is like taking out all the blood cells and cleaning them one by one.
Dealing with the spirit is the totality of all the other dealings, since we need to deal with the self, the flesh, the sin, the corrupted being, and anything in our being that the spirit passes through when it comes out.
Dealing with the Passage of the Spirit
We love the Lord, we love His Word, we love to exercise our spirit and touch Him, but sometimes when we release our spirit, there’s a certain unpleasant flavor and taste even though the words may be right.
Our spirit is neutral – neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong, simply LIFE, mingled with God’s Spirit. When the spirit comes out, it flows out and passes through the different areas of our being, picking up different characteristics and things when it comes out.
Sometimes Christians have a proud spirit, a rough spirit, a competitive spirit, a weak spirit, etc. Because we may be proud, rough, competitive, weak, etc in our soul and in our flesh, our spirit is flavored with this when it comes out.
When we talk to others, our spirit comes out as “our accent”. Just as when we speak English we have a specific accent – British accent, East European accent, American accent, Texan accent, etc – we all have a specific accent in our spirit, and it is recognizable especially if we don’t deal with our spirit.
We do not know of what spirit we are until the Lord exposes us especially in the church life. The church life is the life of the spirit of men – we live in the church life by exercising our spirit and living by our spirit. In the church life, we see all kinds of spirits, depending on the measure of our dealing with the passageways of the spirit. When someone’s spirit flows out, what kind of characteristics does it carry?
The spiritual men know all things, and they discern the spirits of the saints. As we experience the Lord, we can speak something for Him – but what we impart may be life or something else.
Brother Nee spoke much concerning the breaking of the outer man for the release of the spirit, and brother Lee spoke concerning dealing with the spirit for a pure spirit to flow into others.
May the Lord have mercy on us to see that in His light we need to deal with the passageways of our spirit so that our spirit would flow in a pure way and impart life into others!
Lord Jesus, we open to You. We want to come into Your light, Lord, and deal with anything that the light exposes in us. Make us those who see the importance of dealing with our spirit. May other receive life from us when we exercise and release our spirit. Save us from a proud spirit, an anxious spirit, a jealous spirit, a rebellious spirit, a boastful spirit, a rude spirit, a dominating spirit, or any other kind of improper spirit. Lord, keep us in the light, and keep us dealing with our flesh, our self, our natural man, and anything negative in us, so that our spirit would flow forth in a pure way!
References and Further Reading
- This sharing is inspired from brother James Lee’s speaking in this message and portions in, Experience of Life (p. 284), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, ITERO spring 2013 “The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body“, week 4 entitled, Growing in Life by Dealing with the Spirit.
- Buy this morning revival book online via Living Stream Ministry.
- Further reading: Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 62, ch. 41.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I long to be unveiled, / In everything made clear, / No more to be deceived / Or to my pride adhere.
# Release my spirit! This is what I ask, / That self-confined or closed I may not be; / How deep within myself I long have been, / If Thou deliver not, I’ll ne’er be free.
# Spring up, well, with water; / Dig Thou, Lord, completely; / Dig away all barriers / That Thy stream flow through me. - Pictures credit: instagrams by me here and here.
