Now we will focus on our fellowship with God. This is an extremely important topic. The more we can labor on this topic, the better. Hence, we will use several points to cover it.
First, we must be very clear that God is Spirit. It is very difficult to explain the statement that God is Spirit because it is difficult to explain the matter of Spirit. When the Bible refers to God as Spirit, using the term Spirit to refer to God, the emphasis is on God being the highest life, a life that is not physical and cannot be touched by man with the five senses used to contact the physical world. This means that God cannot be seen by eyes, heard by ears, smelled by noses, tasted by tongues, or touched by hands. These organs can be used to contact the physical world, but they are of no avail in contacting God, because God is Spirit. He is not physical.
In the original languages of the Bible, in both the Old Testament Hebrew and in the New Testament Greek, the word Spirit is the same word as wind or breath. We can see the manifestations of wind or breath, but we are unable to see either the wind or breath. It is the same with the Spirit. We can be assured that He is here, but we cannot see or touch Him. Furthermore, the Spirit is more mysterious than either wind or breath. Whereas wind and breath are lifeless and therefore not living, the Spirit has life. Although the Spirit does not have a physical form, He is life and even a strong life. The strongest and highest life in this universe is the Spirit of God. The God whom we contact is not physical. He has the strongest life. He is a person who is living and strong.
In almost every religion man outwardly worships a visible image with his body, and this image is an idol. Idolatry is present not only in pagan religions but also in so-called Christianity. The numerous images in Catholicism, such as the image of Jesus and the image of Mary, are in the principle of man worshipping a physical object with his physical body. No matter what name man gives an image, be it Jesus or the Lord of heaven, it is in the principle of idols and offends God. The Bible shows that the God whom we contact and have fellowship with is Spirit. He is not physical. He is invisible and untouchable, yet He is full of life, very living, and strong.
Second, we must see that man has a spirit. In learning to fellowship with God, we not only need to realize that God is Spirit, but we must also know that we have a spirit. Shortly after I was saved, I read some publications concerning the difference between the spirit and soul and tried to apprehend the difference in my experience. However, for years I was unable to differentiate the spirit from the soul, much less speak clearly concerning them to others. But today I have no difficulty. In order to speak clearly on the subject of man having a spirit, we should consider it from the two aspects of feeling and need.
We will first speak concerning the aspect of feeling. Often we have the desire to do something and a willingness to do it; our heart desires and is inclined to do it. There also may be very good reasons to support it, with no logical reason against it. If we decide to do it, however, a feeling may spring up from the deepest part of our being to protest and disagree with that decision. This does not happen only to Christians; even unbelievers have this experience. The Chinese call this the operation of man’s conscience. This is truly a function of the conscience, but the conscience is a large part of the spirit. Hence, the functioning of the conscience is also the functioning of the spirit, and the objection of the conscience is also the objection of the spirit. Our emotion may favor something, and our mind may approve it, but when we decide to do it, something in our innermost being rises up to object. The Bible refers to this part as the spirit of man. We always say that a person should be genuine when he speaks. Actually, being genuine when one speaks is to speak from the spirit. The spirit is the genuineness of man, the genuine self, the deepest part of man. Nothing can be deeper than man’s innermost part. It is deeper than the sensation of the body, deeper than the emotion, deeper than the mind, and deeper than the will. This is what the Bible refers to as the human spirit.
In the Chinese Union Version of the Bible there are several places where the word spirit is translated accurately. For example, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved...” Here it clearly distinguishes the three parts of man: spirit, soul, and body. Hebrews 4:12 says, “Piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit...” Here it says that the spirit and soul can be divided. These passages were translated well. However, there are other portions that are ambiguous, because spirit and soul are mixed together. Moreover, in some places where the word spirit is not used in the original, the Chinese Union Version translates it as “spirit-soul.” Then there are places that refer to the spirit that are not translated with the word spirit. The good thing is that the Chinese Union Version uses the word spirit to refer to the spirit and the word soul to refer to the soul, which is different from the spirit. The spirit is the deepest part of our being. We first know that there is such a spirit by its sense. The inward sense that is deeper than all other parts proves that we have a spirit.
There is also the aspect of need. We all know that we have different needs, such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation. These are physical needs of the body. In addition to physical needs, man needs comfort, music, art, friends to talk with, travel, exercise, and knowledge. These are psychological needs of man’s soul. (Mentality, or psychology, refers to the soul.) Man usually realizes and takes care of the needs of the body and the soul. However, in reality, he has another need in addition to his physical and psychological needs. Many times when man obtains physical and psychological satisfaction, feeling complete and content, he discovers that he is still dissatisfied in the deepest part of his being and that he still has a feeling of need. His physical and psychological needs have been met, yet deep within there is still a lack. This lack comes from the need within the human spirit. Therefore, every one of us has three kinds of needs: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Spiritual needs show that we have a spirit. The sense that comes from the operation of the conscience and the needs of the human spirit enable us to have a definite realization that human beings have a spirit.