The book of Galatians reveals that God’s desire that Christ would be worked into our being is accomplished by two means—the cross and the Spirit. Several times in Galatians the apostle Paul tells us that we have been crucified with Christ (2:20; 6:14). Since we have been crucified, we are dead to the world, the flesh, and everything other than Christ. Since we are dead, we must learn to apply the cross in our daily life. Christ is living within us. Thus, whenever we are going to do something, we must remember that we have been crucified with Christ and ask ourselves, “Am I doing this, or is Christ doing this?” This is to check ourselves with the cross. Applying the cross in our daily life gives the Lord the ground to work Christ into our being.
On the one hand, we need to apply the cross in our daily life. On the other hand, we need to realize that today Christ is the Spirit who is within us (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; cf. Rom. 8:10-11). This Spirit is always acting, moving, working, and living within us, and as a result, we always have some kind of registration, consciousness, or sense within. By this sense we can know the work of the Spirit within. As regenerated believers, we have a consciousness deep within in our innermost part. Wherever we go and whatever we do, we always have this consciousness within us. If we are about to do something that is not of God, we are conscious that we do not have peace within, and if we are about to do something that is of God, we have a sense of peace within. This peace is a kind of registration or consciousness that we can sense and feel. If we desire to walk according to the Spirit, we must follow this consciousness within us. God has given us His Spirit (Acts 2:38; Rom. 5:5; 2 Cor. 5:5; 1 John 4:13), and this very Spirit is living within us as the Spirit of God’s Son and the Spirit of life (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:2). Thus, we must walk according to Him and live by Him (Gal. 5:16, 25). The secret to this is simply to act according to our inner feeling, our inner consciousness. To walk according to the Spirit simply means to go along with this inner consciousness.
Many times after I have been speaking with a brother or sister for a while, I have the sense deep within that I should not speak anymore. No one tells me this outwardly, and there is no verse in the Scriptures that says that I should speak only for a certain amount of time or only about certain topics. Nevertheless, I often have a sense deep within that I should not continue speaking with this brother or sister. This is an example of the working of the Spirit.
We can know the working of the Spirit by this deep inner sense. If the inner feeling allows us to continue what we are doing, we may continue, but if the inner feeling does not allow it, we should stop. If we follow this inner sense, we will be the most spiritual people in the world. We will grow in life day by day, Christ will be formed within us, and we will learn a great deal concerning Christ and concerning how to cooperate with Him, how to experience Him as our life, and how to take Him as life. In addition, if we simply follow this inner sense all the time and in every matter, we will be people who please God.
This is very simple, yet many times when the Holy Spirit gives us the feeling that we should not do a particular thing, we tell Him, “Lord, let me do this thing just one more time. Next time I will not do it.” As a result, the Spirit within us is often grieved (Eph. 4:30). We are constantly cheating the Lord by always doing what we want.
We may be those who come to the meetings and who sometimes even minister to the saints. Thus, outwardly, it may seem that we are good people and that there is nothing wrong with us. Apparently, we never do anything sinful. However, we know our real condition. We often break the living fellowship between the Spirit and us. We break our fellowship and communion with the Spirit. We know this, and those who are experienced in spiritual matters know this. They realize that although we appear to be good people, in actuality we have broken the living fellowship and communion with the Spirit.
If we go back to the New Testament, we will realize that the apostle Paul stressed the matter of life because he realized that without the divine life there is no Christian life. Everything related to a Christian depends upon the foundation of life. Without this we have nothing. We need to know the inner life, live by Christ, walk in the Spirit, and follow the inner consciousness moment by moment in every situation (Acts 16:6-7; 2 Cor. 2:12-13). If we do this, Christ will be able to occupy our whole being and be formed in us.
At the beginning of Galatians, Paul tells us that Christ is in us, and toward the end of the book he writes concerning the fruit of the Spirit (1:15-16; 5:22). God’s first step is to send the Spirit into our hearts (4:6); His last step is to cause the Spirit to come out of us to be expressed as the items of the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit comes into us as the Spirit of life. Thus, we must follow the Spirit and walk according to the Spirit. If we do this, then all the items of the fruit of the Spirit will come out of us as a sign and proof that we have matured in the life of the Spirit. When we reach the point when we are mature in the life of the Spirit, Christ will be formed in us and will be expressed through us. Christ will be manifested through us as all the items of the fruit of the Spirit. This is the normal Christian life.
The normal Christian life is composed of three items—Christ, the cross, and the Spirit. God’s intention is to work Christ into us, and He does this by the cross and by the Spirit. Through the cross we have been crucified with Christ and are dead to the world, the law, and our self (6:14; 2:19-20). We are even dead to good. We are dead to everything other than Christ. In addition to being crucified with Christ, we have received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is living, moving, working, and acting within us and is continually giving us an inner registration or sense. If we follow this inner sense day by day in our daily life, we will give the Spirit the full place and the full ground to saturate every part of our inner being with Christ. Then we will be filled with Christ, Christ will be formed within us, and we will have all the items of the fruit of the Spirit, by which Christ will be manifested through us. This is the normal Christian life.
I look to the Lord that we would all pay full attention to the matter of life. We need to know Christ as our life in a very practical way in our daily life. We need to experience Him as our life supply and take Him as life through the cross and by the Spirit. We must learn how to apply the cross to our being and how to follow the inner consciousness of the Spirit in order to walk by the Spirit. By our doing these things, Christ will occupy our whole being, will be formed within us, and will be manifested through us. This is God’s thought and God’s desire. May we all look to the Lord that this would be accomplished in and among us.