Nothing is so neglected by Christians as our spirit. In fact, most Christians are unaware that they have one. How many know that this is where regeneration transpires?
Regeneration means having another life added to our natural life. It is not merely having our behavior changed or our being renewed; even Confucius taught the need for that. Regeneration is a new birth, bringing the eternal, uncreated life of God into us. It is accomplished by the Spirit of God in our spirit.
Our first birth is a marvel, but the second birth far exceeds it in wonder. Who designed the intricate structure of the eye? Who formed our two ears? We cannot fathom how God forms all our parts in just nine months’ time, so detailed and so well suited to their function. Yet as wonderful as our natural birth is, our second birth is much more wonderful.
Let us answer some questions before we continue the message.
I come from a small locality and feel that I should have the habit of functioning in the meetings. But since we have been hearing how the meeting life must come out of our private life, I have had a problem about sharing because my private life is not that glorious. Sometimes I spend my time with the Lord sleeping on my Bible. Then when I check in the meeting how my time with the Lord was, I feel as though if I say something, it will be empty.
Your habit of functioning in the meetings should be dropped. We should not function out of habit. The proper church life surely depends upon our proper daily living. Day by day we need to live and walk in our spirit. This will result in some experiences of Christ. Come to the meetings with the riches you have experienced of Christ. In the meeting stay in your spirit. Don’t decide to function or not to function. Don’t think you have to function according to your habit. As you stay in your spirit, when the time comes, the Spirit may impress you to function. Then you share in the spirit the riches you have experienced in your daily life. Our Christian life must be a walk in the spirit. The riches in the meetings are the outflow of this daily walk.
In a certain meeting I was trying to sing a hymn with the saints, but the brother sitting next to me kept talking with me about the Lord. I found it very frustrating, because I was trying hard to be in the spirit and to get something out of the hymn. I struggled to will myself to stay in my spirit and to love this brother, but I could not keep it up. How do our mind, emotion, and will interact to get us into the spirit?
As long as you are endeavoring and thinking how to handle your situation, you are outside the spirit. If you are in your spirit, you will not be bothered by the interrupting brother. You will not even pay that much attention to the singing of the hymn. All your consideration of how to handle this brother is apart from the spirit. When you remain in your spirit, you become the most simple person. Neither the singing nor the bothering brother affect you. In spirit you just join what you should join. This is not to say that problems do not exist. But being in spirit is like being in heaven. The problems do not upset you. I know it is not easy in the beginning to exercise this way, but we need to keep practicing.
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