What is the purpose for such a spirit? This brings us again to the function of the spirit. The purpose of our spirit is to contact the Lord, to receive the Lord, to worship God, and to fellowship with the divine Person. This is clearly implied by John 4:24. Just as the heart is the loving organ, the spirit is the contacting and receiving organ. We cannot love with our spirit; we have to love with our heart. However, we have to receive and contact with our spirit the very Lord whom our heart loves.
Once a certain sister thought that as long as our heart loves the Lord, that is good enough. There was no need to talk about the spirit, since, she thought, spirit and heart are synonymous terms. She asked, “Is it not good enough that our heart loves the Lord? Why is there the need for us to talk about the spirit?” I said, “Sister, here I have a nice Bible. Do you love it?” She said, “Of course I love it.” Then I said, “Take it.” When she stretched out her hand to take it, I said “No, do not exercise your hand. As long as your heart loves the Bible, that is all right. There is no need to use your hand to take it.” She said, “Brother Lee, if I do not exercise my hand, how can I take the Bible?” I told her that in the same way, we cannot say that for our heart to love the Lord is good enough.
Suppose that I love breakfast. As long as my heart loves bacon, toast, milk, and juice, is that adequate? That is absolutely not adequate. If I only love food but do not take it, after a few days I may die. To love is a matter of the heart, but to receive we must exercise another organ. Which organ we exercise depends on what we are to receive. If we want to receive food, we have to exercise our mouth. If we want to receive voices, we have to exercise our ears, and if we are going to receive scenery and colors, we have to exercise our eyes. We love the Lord, but by which organ can we receive Him? Shall we look at Him with our eyes? The more we look at the Lord in this way, the more He will not be there. No doubt, only one organ was created by God for the purpose of receiving and contacting Him; that is our spirit.
The spirit within us is like the stomach within our body. It is special, specific, and definite for the purpose of receiving something. We have to exercise our spirit to receive the Lord. Our spirit was created for this definite purpose. However, before we receive, we have to love. No one would receive something if he did not love it. If we do not love breakfast, it is hard to receive it. This is why we must have an appetite. We have to love the Lord; then we will take Him, touch Him, contact Him, commune with Him, fellowship with Him, and receive Him in our spirit.
The heart is for us to love, and the spirit is for us to receive and contact. By the renewing of the heart we have a new interest, new desire, and new capability for us to love the Lord. By the renewing of the spirit, we have a new ability and capacity to receive the Lord. After our spirit has been renewed, has had Christ as life added to it, has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and has been joined to the Lord as one spirit, it is a very keen organ to receive and contact the Lord.
Concerning the soul, the first thing we must learn is to deny the soul-life, the self. Two passages, Matthew 16:24 through 26 and Luke 9:23 through 25, tell us this clearly. The soul is the very self composed of the mind, the will, and the emotion. This means that we must learn to deny our natural mind, natural will, and natural emotion.
Second, we must purify our souls. First Peter 1:22 says, “Since you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.” Our souls are purified mostly by receiving the word. The word of God is able to purify the soul. To purify the soul is to purify it from fleshly, carnal, worldly, and natural things. Our soul, our very self, our very being, has been damaged, saturated, and occupied by those negative things. Now this soul has to be purified from all these things. However, we must first deny the soul-life. The more we deny our soul-life, the more our soul will be purified by receiving the word of God.
Third, our soul must be transformed. Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we are being transformed, but by that verse alone we are not clear what part is being transformed. In Romans 12:2 we are told that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. By this we know that transformation is accomplished in our soul. After our spirit has been regenerated, we need to be transformed in our soul. First we must deny the soul-life; then our soul must be purified and transformed to the image of Christ.
As we have seen, the purpose of the heart is to love the Lord, and the purpose of the spirit is to receive and to contact the Lord. What then is the purpose of the soul? The soul is to reflect the Lord. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that with an unveiled face we behold and reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord. The soul, after being purified and transformed, is the very organ to express Christ, to reflect the Lord. We love Him with our heart, we receive and contact Him with our spirit, and we reflect and express Him with our transformed soul. The soul-life must first be denied, then the soul must be purified and transformed. Then it will be adequate to express and reflect the Lord Jesus.
I hope that you will put all these matters into practice in your daily life. If you do, you will see that what we have spoken of here is altogether practical. It truly works.
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