The Spirit was promised, the Spirit is now being ministered, and the Spirit must be received. “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:2), The Spirit is ministered to us, and we must learn to receive. How can we receive? First of all we must open ourselves. We should not keep ourselves closed. When we are in a meeting listening to some kind of ministry, we must say, “Lord, keep me open to You. I want to receive the ministry of the Spirit.” Forty years ago I used to sit and listen to Brother Watchman Nee quite often. If I did not look to the Lord to keep me open, I might hear the message, yet I would not get much of the Lord inside me. So we must all keep ourselves open to receive the Spirit.
While we are listening and opening ourselves to the Lord, we must continually say “Amen” in our spirit. This is the way to receive the Spirit. We must open ourselves and say “Amen” to His Word. When we open ourselves and say “Amen” to the Word, the Word which is outside of us gets into our spirit and becomes the Spirit. Then when we express something of the Spirit to others, it becomes the Word again. If they will amen the Word, it will get into them and become the Spirit again. This is the way to receive the Spirit.
After receiving the Spirit, we must begin in the Spirit. “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). We all must begin in the Spirit and continue in the Spirit. When we begin in the Spirit, it means that we are starting to walk in the spirit, we are beginning to live in the spirit.
Therefore, after beginning in the Spirit, we must learn to walk in spirit. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit [lit., in spirit], and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). The word “walk” in Greek means to have our being in this way. Whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we are, and wherever we are, are all included in this one word. So to walk in spirit means to have our being in spirit. This means that all the time we must live by Christ and take Him as our person.
In this short book, there are so many items about the subjective Spirit. After walking in spirit, we must learn to sow to the Spirit. Then we shall reap of the Spirit. “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life eternal” (Gal. 6:8). This simply means that whatever we intend to do must be one with the Spirit. To sow to the Spirit means to have Christ as the seed. Then we will reap a harvest of Christ. Christ first of all is the seed to us, and eventually He becomes our very harvest. This is not the doctrinal Christ, but the Christ in our experience. He is our seed, and He is our harvest. If we are daily sowing the Spirit as the seed, surely some day we will reap something of the Spirit as our harvest. But if we sow to the flesh, we will reap a harvest of the flesh. Therefore whatever we do must be the seed of the Spirit. Then, spontaneously, something will grow up out of what we have sown. This is the indwelling Christ experienced as the Spirit.
By reading the book of Galatians properly, we see clearly that the proper Christian life is nothing but a daily walk in Christ. And today this Christ is the very Spirit within us for our experience. So this book begins with deliverance from this present evil age, and it ends with this: “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Gal. 6:18).
Are we living in this present evil age, or are we living in our spirit? Are we living in religion, or are we walking in spirit? To walk in spirit means to walk in our spirit. It is in our spirit that we have the enjoyment of the Lord. This is why this verse says that the Lord’s grace is with our spirit. When we get into our spirit, we enjoy the Lord as grace. When we begin to quarrel with our wife or husband, we must run back to the spirit. The more we stay in our mind, the more we will exchange words. But when we get into our spirit, we touch the grace of the Lord. Grace is the Lord experienced by us. The experienced Christ becomes our grace. Here we could never exchange words, because we are in another country. The mind is a quarreling country, but the spirit is a country of grace. It is not a matter of trying to overcome, it is a matter of being in the right country. The right country is in our spirit.
Paul begins the book of Galatians by speaking about Christ. Then he changes to the Spirit. Eventually, he tells us that the Spirit, who is the reality of Christ, is in our spirit. Therefore, we must learn to stay in our spirit. In order to do this we need some exercise. By our natural birth and life, we live not in our spirit, but in our mind. But now we must change countries. We must learn continually to return to the country of grace which is our spirit.
Very few Christians today know that Christ is in their spirit. Hardly anyone has ever paid any attention to the last verse of Galatians: “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Satan is so subtle. Whenever anyone comes to this verse, he covers the last three words, “with your spirit.” The satanic hand hid these three words from me for many years. I expounded this book verse by verse to others, but I never expounded the last three words. But the whole book of Galatians is contained in these three words. We can have all the electrical wires installed into a building, yet if we don’t have a switch, we cannot apply the electricity. This is the satanic deceit. These three words are the switch. Without them, how and where shall we touch Christ? Oh, how evil Satan is! He has hidden the switch from God’s children. But today we know where the switch is. Hallelujah! Christ is the very God in process, and eventually the processed God is Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. In our spirit we enjoy the indwelling Christ as our grace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit!
What is the grace? Grace is simply Christ Himself as our enjoyment. When we come back to our spirit, there is just the sweet enjoyment of Christ. Christ is the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit. When we turn to our spirit, we simply enjoy Him as our grace. When we are living in our mind, we are living in a backward country. We should not stay there, but turn to the wonderful country of our spirit. This country is not backward, but full of grace. Here we have Christ as our full enjoyment.