These verses in 1 Corinthians 6 are the only verses in the New Testament which tell us that our bodies are members of Christ, that we are one spirit with the Lord, and that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. When we read these verses, however, we may take them for granted and may not spend adequate time to study them and the important matters revealed in them. How much time have you spent on verse 15, which says that our bodies are members of Christ? Very few believers have paid the proper attention to this verse. Yes, messages have been given on verse 19, messages on the believers’ body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. But before you came into the Lord’s recovery, did you ever hear a message on being one spirit with the Lord? Did you ever hear a message on being joined to the Lord as one spirit? These three matters deserve thorough study. I do not mean merely the study of the black and white letters of the Word, but a study in the light of experience.
Rarely do Christians today practice being one spirit with the Lord. Do you know of a book, or even a message, entitled “One Spirit with the Lord”? Due to the influence of traditional theology and practice, most Christians are not able to digest a verse like 6:17. There seems to be no room in them for the vital matter of being one spirit with the Lord. However, they may have a great deal of room in them for such matters as holiness, victory, power, miracles, and speaking in tongues. Certain Christians in Pentecostalism place great emphasis on speaking in tongues. In some cases they do not care whether or not the tongues-speaking is genuine. Because they are so fond of speaking in tongues, they do not care much for proper prayers and do not care at all for the central vision of Paul’s completing ministry. If someone speaks in tongues, these believers easily become excited. But if someone prays, “Lord, thank You for Your mercy and grace,” they quickly become disinterested. They have no heart for this kind of prayer. Furthermore, should you speak to them of the vision of God’s economy, they would not be able to understand what you are saying. Do you think it is possible for such persons to know the Word of God? No, they cannot know the Word, for there is no room in them for the crucial matters of God’s revelation.
The situation of many Christians today is similar to that of the disciples of the Lord Jesus who did not have the capacity to take in the Lord’s word regarding the bread of life. The Lord said that He was the bread of life, that He came down from heaven to give life, that His flesh was edible and His blood drinkable, and that whoever ate Him would live by Him (John 6:33, 35, 55, 57). Those who could not receive the Lord’s word said, “This is a hard word; who can hear it?” (John 6:60).
We also may be very limited in our capacity to receive God’s revelation. Due to the drugging influence of religion and tradition, we may not be able to take in Paul’s word about being one spirit with the Lord, or his word about our bodies being the members of Christ. We may be like a person who eats garlic or who stays in a room filled with the smell of garlic, and thus becomes insensitive to the taste and smell of garlic. Such a person’s sense of smell may become so accustomed to garlic that he regards this smell as normal. In the same principle, our spiritual senses of smell and taste, in fact, our whole inner being, may be so much under the influence of traditional Christianity that we do not have the ability to perceive certain crucial matters of God’s economy. If this is our situation, we may read 1 Corinthians 6 again and again without being impressed by verses 15 and 17.
For many years I also read 1 Corinthians 6 without seeing the crucial significance of verse 17. But one day this verse began to be opened up to me. It was as if I had never read this verse before. I asked myself if such a verse was actually in the Bible. In verse 17 Paul clearly says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” From that time onward, I began to give a great deal of attention to this verse and to exercise myself to experience it.
In 1947 and 1948 Brother Nee often stressed the need to exercise the spirit and release the spirit. He often said that in all we do, preaching the gospel, contacting the saints, and ministering the Word, we must exercise our spirit and release our spirit. He also pointed out that the part of our being which we use the most is the part that we emphasize. For example, if a person lives in the mind, his mind will be prominent whenever he speaks. Likewise, a person who lives in the emotion will express his emotion. I was greatly helped by this fellowship, and from that time onward, I endeavored to exercise the spirit and to release the spirit. However, I had not yet been impressed with 6:17.
In 1958 the Lord began to open the matters of eating the Lord, drinking the Lord, and enjoying the Lord. At that time I began to see John 6:57, where the Lord Jesus says, “He who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” I also realized that if we would eat the Lord, drink the Lord, and enjoy the Lord, we must know our spirit. Apart from knowing the spirit, we cannot contact the Lord. In one message I pointed out that only when we know the nature of a particular food do we know how to eat that kind of food. In like manner, if we want to eat the Lord, we must know the nature of the Lord. Today the Lord is the life-giving Spirit. This means that the nature of spiritual food is spirit. We can contact the Spirit only by means of our spirit. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality.” According to this verse, only spirit can touch the Spirit, and only spirit can worship Spirit.
In 1960 the burden, the light, and the utterance concerning the spirit became intensified. As a result, message upon message was given on the spirit. When I began the ministry in this country, I also emphasized the spirit. If you read the early issues of The Stream magazine, you will see many of the messages are centered on the spirit. I can testify that seeing 1 Corinthians 6:17 has greatly affected the ministry given to me by the Lord.