After consecration, a believer needs to learn to walk according to the spirit.
In general, Christians do not know what spirit refers to in the phrase walking according to the spirit. They think that spirit refers to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Hence, with regard to walking according to the spirit, they have a common but inaccurate understanding: they think that this means to obey the Holy Spirit. Strictly speaking, walking according to the spirit and obeying the Holy Spirit are not exactly the same. Although they are very similar, they are also quite different. The expression obeying the Holy Spirit is neither clear nor accurate. People understand this teaching to mean that they need to obey the Holy Spirit when He touches them. However, how does the Holy Spirit touch us? And how do we obey Him? Even those who speak of obeying the Holy Spirit are not clear concerning this.
When we speak of walking according to the spirit, we are referring to the regenerated human spirit. This is a very practical lesson. If we do not know how to walk according to the spirit once we have been saved, have terminated the past, and have consecrated ourselves to the Lord, it will not be easy for us to grow properly. Every Christian needs to know the simple way to grow in life. We will divide this lesson into ten points.
Most people divide man into two parts: an outward part, which is the body, and an inward part, which is the “spirit-soul.” Psychologists also divide man into two parts: a physical part and a metaphysical part. But the revelation in the Bible shows that man is of three parts: a visible body outwardly, an invisible spirit inwardly, and a soul between the body and the spirit.
In Chinese, the term ling-hun, literally, “spirit-soul,” refers to one thing. However, in the original text of the Bible, spirit and soul are two separate words that refer to two different things (1 Thes. 5:23). Hence, the soul is one thing, and the spirit is another. The soul is man’s personality, man’s self, including the mind, emotion, and will. Thoughts and considerations, joy and anger, preferences and decisions are all matters related to the soul, not the spirit. There is another part within us that is deeper than our mind, emotion, and will. This is our spirit. The spirit is the deepest part within man. The outermost part of man is the body, within the body is the soul, and deeper than the soul is the spirit.
When a believer wants to do something, he often considers whether or not it is right to do it. If his emotion feels happy doing it, his will often decides to do it. But at that moment, in the deepest part of his being there may be some resistance, disagreeing with the action and disapproving of it. This protest from deep within comes from his spirit. Our spirit is the deepest part of our being. Walking according to the spirit is walking according to the deepest part within us.
The spirit within man has three parts: conscience, intuition, and fellowship. Fellowship governs our communion with God. Intuition is a sense that is not based on the reasonings of the mind. For example, when a person wants to do something, he thinks about it, searching for a reason to do it. If he feels happy about it, he decides to do it. The feeling of resistance, however, which comes from his deepest part, is not based on any reason; hence, it is intuition.
In the spirit there is also the conscience. The conscience is a major part of the spirit. The Chinese people often say that the conscience has been discovered. This means that the function of the conscience has been activated. They also say that we need to act according to the conscience, which means acting according to the feeling of the conscience. The feeling of the conscience is often contrary to the mind’s reasonings, to the emotion’s likes and dislikes, and to the will’s decisions. Often when a person is about to do something, there is a protesting in the deepest part of his being, even though his mind, emotion, and will approve of the action. This protest within most probably comes from the conscience. This function of the conscience is a function of the spirit. The feeling of the conscience is also the feeling of the spirit. The reason the conscience is most commonly associated with the spirit is that it is a major part of the spirit. Once we know the function of the conscience, we will have some understanding concerning spiritual matters.
When God created man, He created a spirit in man so that man can commune and fellowship with God, intuitively know God’s desire, and determine whether a matter is proper or improper. At the time of man’s creation, the spirit was living and functioning. However, because man sinned, the human spirit was damaged, and the function of the spirit was nearly lost. Consequently, sinners do not like to contact God and cannot contact God because their organ for contacting God has been damaged. Our ears are for hearing, but we will be unable to hear any sound if our ears are damaged, and we are deaf. Likewise, the capacity of our human spirit to contact God was damaged, and the function of our spirit was therefore lost because of sin. Even though unbelievers say that they act according to their conscience, their conscience is actually insensitive, and the feeling of their conscience is inaccurate. According to the Bible, they are dead in relation to the function of their spirit (Eph. 2:1).
Confucius taught that the highest principle involves learning to develop the “bright virtue.” The bright virtue actually refers to the function of the conscience in the spirit. This is what Wang Yang-ming, a Chinese philosopher, called “innate knowledge and ability.” They taught that a man’s bright virtue needs to be cultivated and that his innate knowledge and ability need to be developed. These teachings prove that the spirit within fallen man has problems because it is not bright.
However, at the moment we were saved, our spirit was made alive and renewed. As we were listening to the gospel, the Holy Spirit moved us and touched our conscience. He caused the truth of the gospel to penetrate our mind and enlighten our spirit, particularly our conscience, enabling us to realize that we were sinners before God. After the Holy Spirit touched, enlightened, and condemned us, we condemned ourselves, and the conscience began to function properly (Rom. 2:15). Then we confessed and repented before God and received the Lord Jesus as our Savior according to the feeling in our conscience, which is the feeling from the moving of the Holy Spirit. As a result of our confession and repentance, God forgave us and cleansed us by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit entered into our spirit, regenerating us. Our deadened spirit was made alive. Our spirit was renewed once it was made alive.
Salvation is twofold. First, a person’s sins are forgiven before God, and the record of his sins is annulled. Second, he is regenerated within, and his spirit is made alive and renewed. Therefore, a person’s salvation is not merely a matter of his position before God, but it is also a matter of receiving life within him and having his spirit enlivened and renewed. If salvation is only a matter of man’s position before God, there could be no change in the life and living of a believer. Believers experience a change in their life and living because their spirit has been made alive and renewed. This results in a change in the deepest part of their being. The Spirit of God enters into their deepest part, transforming them in their spirit. The Spirit of God brings the life and nature of God, that is, God Himself, into our spirit. He brings an additional element into our spirit. This element causes our spirit to be enlivened and renewed. Hence, we have a conscience that is fresh, living, and much stronger than the conscience of unbelievers. The conscience of unbelievers is dead, but our conscience is living; the conscience of unbelievers is old, but our conscience is renewed. When we were saved, the Holy Spirit brought the life of God and God Himself into our spirit so that our spirit was made alive and renewed.