When we meet together for the church life, we can praise the Lord that He has regenerated us and that His Spirit indwells our spirit. Problems arise, however, with our soul, which is full of our opinions and natural concepts. Suppose five saints come together from different countries. Can they be built together? When they pray, sing, call on the Lord, and say hallelujah, they enjoy being one in spirit. Once the prayer is over, however, and they begin to talk together, the spirit is forgotten. Out comes French opinion. English opinion. German opinion. Chinese opinion. Japanese opinion. When their eyes are shut in prayer, they are one. When they open their eyes and look at each other, they journey from their spirit to their soul. There is this difference of opinion not only among different nationalities. Within a country, say, the United States, can the Texas brothers be one with those in California? Can those in California be one with those in New York? Even couples cannot be one. There is the man’s point of view, which differs from the way a woman looks at things.
How can all these differences be resolved? There is no natural way to work them out. We must let the indwelling Spirit spread and saturate our soul. Then spontaneously we shall be one. We shall be joined in soul (Phil. 2:2). The natural concepts will give place to the spreading Spirit. This is the way we grow in life. Out of this growth in life comes oneness. We can be built together with all the saints.
Without the spreading of the Spirit into your soul, your oneness with others is of short duration. If you visit Hong Kong, for example, you will be warmly received and at first feel happy to be there. Within a very short time, however, you will realize how differently they do things from the way you think they should be done. Before many days go by, you will be offended. While you are here at home, you shout, “Hallelujah for the one new man!” but when you are in a new environment, the new man is cut into pieces by the concepts you still hold.
Your soul is still not transformed. You are still living in your soul, which remains old and natural. This is the hindrance to the new man. Will you allow the indwelling Spirit to thoroughly saturate your soul so that it is organically transformed? Will you give the Spirit the freedom to permeate your soul as well as your spirit? If He does, whether you go to Ghana, or the Philippines, or Brazil, you will have no problem. The base of your opinion will have been destroyed. With your soul saturated by the indwelling Spirit, you are one with the new man. You are built up in the Body. Whatever locality you visit, whomever you meet, there is no problem on your side.
When this is true of the saints all over the world, there will be the new man. The Body will be built up.
Ephesians 4:12-16 tells us that the building up of the Body of Christ depends on the growth in life. “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ; until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer babes...but...may grow up into Him in all things, Who is the Head, Christ, out from Whom all the Body, fitted and knit together through every joint of the supply, according to the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”
This “growing up into Him in all things” comes about through our soul’s being saturated with the Spirit. There must be “the growth of the Body” for the Lord to have the new man. This is the goal the Lord is pursuing. When His Body is built up, He will have the new man on earth to carry out God’s eternal purpose. Let us pray for this to be realized and offer ourselves to Him for this. “Lord, spread Yourself from my spirit into my soul. Saturate my soul. Transform me metabolically. I want to be organically changed.” After some time we shall be transformed by the growth in life. Then we shall be built into the Body and be members of the new man. As this happens in many of us throughout the whole earth, the new man will come into being. This is the Lord’s goal. Let us be one with Him in pursuing this.