In the New Testament there are three verses that speak of both the human spirit and the divine Spirit. John 3:6 says that our spirit is born of the divine Spirit; John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit; and Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. Many who have been Christians for years have never seen the two spirits in these verses. Not long ago two brothers among us visited some preachers in a certain city. One brother began to speak about the two spirits. Because those preachers were proud and thought that they knew everything about the Spirit, they asked the brothers to talk about something else. At this point the other brother said, “You have told us that you know everything about the Spirit. Please tell me: what are the three verses in the Bible that speak of the two spirits?” Unable to locate the verses, the preachers could only look at one another.
John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The first spirit in this verse is God’s Spirit, and the second is our spirit. This means that our spirit is born of God the Spirit. This verse is found in the most familiar chapter in the Bible, John chapter three. Nearly every believer is able to recite John 3:16, but not many are able to recite verse 6. We need to be deeply impressed with this verse. It tells us that our spirit is born of the Spirit. How mysterious is this birth in our spirit!
The birth of the spirit in John 3:6 is not the first birth, the natural birth; it is the second birth, the spiritual birth. All the saved ones have been born twice. If you have had only one birth, you are still a fallen one, destined to perish. The first birth, from our parents, is the birth in the flesh; the second birth, from God, is the birth in our spirit.
According to John 3:6, the second birth transpires in our spirit. In our spirit we were born of God the Spirit. Many Christians are not clear about the human spirit. Some great Christian teachers have said that our spirit is simply our mind. What a terrible mistake! If this is true, then the wonderful birth spoken of in John 3:6 takes place in our mind. How absurd to say this! If even some of the great teachers in Christianity are not clear about the birth in the spirit, then what about the vast majority of Christians? As far as the spirit and life in the Spirit are concerned, the situation in Christianity is pitiful. Not many actually realize that the spiritual birth takes place in our spirit and is of God the Spirit.
Anyone who has not experienced the second birth can be born of the Spirit by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. If you call, “O Lord Jesus!” the Spirit of God will come into your spirit and you will immediately experience the second birth. Hallelujah for the second birth! We are the second-birth people. Never forget the two spirits in John 3:6—the human spirit and the divine Spirit.
Another precious verse about these two spirits is John 4:24. This verse says, “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality.” Here again we see that God is a Spirit and that we have a spirit. If we would worship God, we must worship Him in our spirit. As human beings, we have many organs: eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, a mouth for speaking and eating, a nose for smelling and breathing, hands for working, and feet for walking. We also have our various inward organs, including a stomach for retaining and digesting food. In addition to all these organs, we have a spirit with which to worship God.
Man was made by God and for God. He was made to worship God, to contact God, to receive God, to retain God, and even to digest God. Your religious mentality may be offended at the thought of digesting God. Yes, we must digest God. The Lord Jesus said that He was the bread of life and that we must eat Him (John 6:35, 54-57). Jesus is edible! If we eat Him, we must also digest Him. The function of the organ of our spirit is to worship, contact, receive, retain, and digest God. We may call this organ our spiritual stomach. Just as we all have two hearts, a physical heart and a psychological heart, we also have two stomachs. With our physical stomach we digest food, and with our spiritual stomach we digest God. Have you ever realized that in addition to your physical stomach you also have a spiritual stomach? Often, after being satisfied with food which fills our physical stomach, we are still hungry in our spirit, our spiritual stomach. This is the organ for digesting God. We need to receive God into this part of our being.
We all have a spirit, and we must use our spirit to contact God. Consider the example of breathing. In order to breathe in air, we need to use our nose. We cannot use our hand to grasp the air, our eyes to look at it, or our ears to hear it. There is only one organ designed for receiving air, and that organ is the nose. Whenever we exercise this organ, we receive air into us. Likewise, our spirit is the proper organ to use in receiving God. Never say that there is no God. Do not say, “I don’t believe in God, because I can’t see Him or grasp Him.” You cannot grasp Him unless you use the right organ. Just as we exercise our nose to take in fresh air, we must exercise our spirit to receive God. Do not exercise your mind to ask where God is and then complain that you cannot see Him. God is present, even omnipresent. He is with you right now. But if you try to contact Him with your mind, you are using the wrong organ. Forget about exercising your mind to contact God, and exercise your spirit from deep within, calling, “O Lord! O Lord Jesus!” If you do this, God will immediately come into you. God is a Spirit, and we worship Him in our spirit. Thus, the human spirit worships the divine Spirit.