Thus far in this chapter we have seen mainly the truth in doctrine. Now we come to the experience. First, we need to see what the all-inclusive Christ is today; we need to see the nature of this Christ. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit,” and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Thus, the all-inclusive Christ is now the life-giving Spirit. Next we need to see where this life-giving Spirit is today. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit,” and Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” Therefore, today the all-inclusive Christ, who is now the life-giving Spirit, is in our spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This verse shows that these two spirits, the life-giving Spirit and our human spirit, are mingled together as one spirit. Hence, to walk in Christ is simply to walk in this mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4).
The mingled spirit is the crucial focus that we need to pay our full attention to. To walk in Christ is to walk not according to our opinions or concepts but according to the mingled spirit within us. This mingled spirit is living and working in us. When we walk in the mingled spirit, we experience Christ in everything—in marriage life, in school life, in office life, and in the church life. The more we walk in the spirit, the more we gain Christ.
Some may ask, “What does it mean to walk in the spirit?” We all have a spirit within us. As believers, we have been regenerated in our spirit (John 3:6). Now Christ as the life-giving Spirit dwells in our spirit and is even one with our spirit. If we speak, we should not speak from our emotion, mind, or will. Rather, we should speak from the mingled spirit. This is to walk in the spirit. However, we must admit that we speak and act mostly from our emotion, from our mind, or from our will. Most of what we say and do is from our natural man, not from our spirit. Whenever we go somewhere, we usually go not from our spirit but from our emotion, mind, or will—from our natural man. The saints who say that they like a silent meeting or a loud meeting speak from their preference, not from their spirit. When they speak in this way, they are not walking in the spirit. If they are walking in the spirit and say something concerning the meetings from the spirit, they will only say, “Praise the Lord! We care only for Christ.”
Recently, in certain local churches a disputation arose as to whether or not the saints should go to sporting events. Some said that those who do not go to sporting events are under a legality and that those who go are liberated. They said that those who do not go to sporting events are religious and that those who go are not religious. After the saints became bothered and confused by this matter, they presented this question to me in a meeting. I answered, “You all have one of two religions. One religion is not to go to sporting events, and the other is to go. Regardless of whether or not you think the saints should go, as long as you do not have Christ, whatever you do is a religion. We should not have a religion that says we should not go, nor should we have a religion that says we should go. Rather, we should simply take Christ.” Because Christianity is void of Christ, many things other than Christ, such as rules and regulations, have come in. If we are filled with Christ, we will have no rules and regulations. No ground will be given to such useless things.
As we have received Christ, we need to walk in Him. Today He is the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit, and our spirit is one spirit with Him. Hence, we simply need to live in the mingled spirit, speaking, acting, and moving in the spirit. If we live in this way, we will be full of Christ. Then when we come together, we will come together not only in Christ but also with Christ. Whatever we speak will be out from Christ. Whether our meetings are silent or loud will make no difference. I was with Brother Nee for a number of years in Shanghai. When he was not in the meetings, the saints often felt that something was lacking. However, when he was in the meetings, he would speak or pray in only two or three meetings out of ten; the rest of the time he was silent. Nevertheless, as long as he was there, we all felt that Christ was there. This proves that having a proper meeting is not a matter of shouting or being silent but a matter of bringing Christ to the meeting.
If we walk in Christ and live Christ day by day, we will be saturated with Christ, possess Christ, and be full of Christ. Then when we come to the meetings, we will come with Christ. We may not speak, pray, or shout, but others will sense that we are full of Christ. Otherwise, when we come to the meetings, whatever we do will be a performance. We will make the meeting hall a theater because we lack reality. Suppose a brother quarrels with his wife at home, and then he comes to the meeting and shouts, “Praise the Lord!” Inwardly, his wife may say, “He is a devil praising the Lord.” She will not be able to forget her husband’s behavior at home. If we do not live Christ in our daily life, but we shout, “Praise the Lord!” in the meetings, the demons will laugh at us because we will be merely performers, actors. We need to live Christ so that we can come to the meetings with Christ. Then when we speak in the meetings, there will be something weighty, something of life and of reality. What we say in the meetings will be facts in our experience, not a performance.
We need the real experience of Christ. The church is Christ, and the church meetings are an exhibition of Christ. The church meetings should be a display of what we experience in our daily life. We need to live by Christ and in Christ to be filled with Christ. Then when we come together, we can display the Christ whom we experience for His glory, for others’ edification, and for the enemy’s shame. This is the proper church life.
If we see this vision of the proper church life, we will drop all our different concepts. We will not care for having a certain kind of meeting. Because we are filled with Christ, we will have no capacity, no room, for anything else. Our whole vessel, our whole being, will be filled up to the brim with Christ. If all the saints experience this, there will be no concepts in the local churches; there will be only Christ. Then we will have the genuine oneness and harmony. Because our goal, our understanding, our realization, our daily experience, our living, and our everything are Christ, the church will shine with Christ. There will be no opinions, no concepts, no disputations, and no fighting but only oneness and harmony. The oneness and harmony that we enjoy will simply be Christ Himself. This is the Lord’s recovery of the church life. The church life in the Lord’s recovery is simply Christ lived out of us as a living testimony.