Having a clearer understanding of the three parts of man, we can now consider into which of these three parts the Lord Jesus has come. When the Lord Jesus entered into us at the time of our regeneration, He came into our spirit. The Scriptures are very clear on this point. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Since we have been joined to the Lord, He and we are one spirit. This shows us that when the Lord came into us, He came into our spirit. Also, Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” In this verse we see that the two spirits—the divine Spirit and the human spirit—work together and that the Spirit of God works in our spirit. As these two spirits work together, they are mingled together as one spirit. They are mingled to the point that it is difficult to discern which spirit is which. These two verses show us that the divine Spirit has come into our human spirit, and these two spirits have been mingled together to become one spirit.
Now that Christ is in our spirit, we must consider what is taking place in our soul, that is, in our mind, emotion, and will. This is a matter of critical importance. Once Christ our Savior came into our spirit, our spirit was transformed. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that our mind, emotion, and will have not been transformed. Christ is in our spirit, but He may not be in our soul. We all need to be transformed in our soul (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2).
Sometimes we may enjoy praying to the Lord and exercising our spirit. Then after praying, we feel that we can love all the saints. But before long it becomes clear that we are not actually able to love all the saints. Such an experience may be confusing to us. After all, when we were praying, did we not sense Christ and experience Him? When we prayed, we exercised our spirit to contact Him as the Spirit, and this resulted in our touching our spirit and experiencing, enjoying, and sensing Him. Nevertheless, even after we pray, it is still possible for us to use our natural man—our natural thought, natural emotion, and natural will—to make decisions without Christ. This is possible because although we have Christ indwelling our spirit, we do not have Christ in the organ of our soul, and the functions of our soul have not yet been transformed. This kind of experience is very typical in the Christian life.
For the sake of illustration, let us suppose that I am a single brother who lives with another young brother. It is a fact that in my innermost being I love this brother and that the more I pray and contact Christ in my spirit, the more I love him. Nevertheless, I have peculiar thoughts, and the brother with whom I live has peculiar habits. My peculiar thoughts are incompatible with his peculiar habits. As a result of our conflicting peculiarities, I may become disgusted with this brother. Not only so, his peculiarities may cause me to become angry. Even though I genuinely love this brother and wish that there were no difficulties between us, it is difficult for me to bear him, and I feel that I cannot go on living with him. My struggle is an indication that although I have been regenerated in my spirit, I am not yet transformed in my mind, emotion, and will. Although I have Christ in my spirit, I do not have Him in my soul. In my spirit I am completely transformed into the image and likeness of Christ, but in my mind, emotion, and will, I am still like the people in the world. Figuratively speaking, although in my spirit I am gold, in my mind, emotion, and will I am full of dust and clay.
Were it not for the Lord’s giving us such tests, we might think that our condition is proper and might not realize that we remain untransformed. For instance, perhaps I love the brother with whom I live and we get along very well together. Even if I feel that I love that brother so much and there are no problems between us, I still have the old man, the natural man, the man of clay. It is only when tests come that we realize the true nature of our “clay” condition. When the Lord sends peculiar brothers to us, it is as if He were causing water to be poured on a lump of clay. In the same way that the lump of clay cannot bear the water and becomes mud, we cannot tolerate certain ones. When we are tested, we realize that we are still the old man and have the old mind, old emotion, and old will.
We are natural men, men of clay, until, by the grace of God, the Christ who is in our spirit increases and expands within our being to spread outward from our spirit and saturate our soul with all of its parts. After Christ spreads within us and saturates the parts of our soul, we will love the brothers without effort. At that point, it simply will not matter how peculiar a brother is. We will even tell the Lord, “Lord, I praise You. This dear brother is very precious to me.” We must be full of faith in this matter.
When I was young, soon after I was called by the Lord, I went to Shanghai and stayed there with some young brothers. What I experienced there was very similar to what I have described above. Before I went to Shanghai, I had prayed, “Lord, I am aware that when I arrive in Shanghai, several other brothers will stay with me. Lord, help me love them. Regardless of who they are or how they behave, enable me to love them.” After I arrived, I asked the Lord every morning to help me love the brothers. Before long, it seemed that all the brothers who were staying with me were peculiar. There was nowhere I could go to escape them. After one incident in which I became upset at a brother, I went to my lodging, knelt on the floor, and prayed, “Lord, forgive me. I really cannot love these brothers.” I was an example of a man who was regenerated in his spirit but not transformed in his soul. Even though my spirit loved the brothers, my soul remained old and natural.
When we contact other Christians, we may have the feeling that they are all peculiar. Generally, we feel that while everyone else is peculiar, we ourselves are quite normal. Based upon this, we may feel that we cannot love them. Their odd habits or character flaws often give rise to our becoming disgusted with them. Eventually, we may dislike and even despise them. If this problem is left unchecked, it may even cause us to become very unhappy in the church life.
After being in Shanghai for about two and a half years, the Lord increased and spread within me. When I had another opportunity to stay with some brothers and a situation arose that would have previously caused me to become angry, I was not moved. I was able to love them not only in my spirit but even in my mind, emotion, and will. I genuinely loved them. One week after I had been dealt with, the brother whose peculiarity had been so bothersome to me was delivered from his peculiarity as well.
Even though we have the image of God, in our natural state we have nothing precious within us; we are only men of clay. God’s intention is to transform us men of clay into His image in a full way so that we will be as precious as gold, pearls, and precious stones. The way this happens is very simple. First, the Lord Jesus comes into our spirit to be the inward element, thereby transforming our spirit. From that time onward, as long as we cooperate with Him, He will increase within us and spread from our spirit into our soul. On the day He returns, even our physical body, the very outer part of our being, will be saturated with His element (Phil. 3:21). At that time our very body will be saturated with the Spirit. When He returns, He will be glorified in us, we will be manifested with Him in glory, and we will be like Him (Col. 3:4; 2 Thes. 1:10; 1 John 3:2). This is the intention that God has planned to fulfill with us.