In order to understand what Paul means by grace in 6:18, we need to turn to the Gospel of John. In this Gospel we read that the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality (1:1, 14). According to John 1:16, “Of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.” Furthermore, John 1:17 tells us, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The fact that the law was given and that grace came indicates that grace is a person. Grace was not given; it came with Jesus Christ. The grace in John 1 is the very Spirit mentioned elsewhere in the Gospel of John. When Christ came, something wonderful, called grace, came with Him. Actually, this grace is a wonderful Person, Christ Jesus Himself. According to John 1:16, of Christ’s fullness we have received grace upon grace. But in John 7:39 and 20:22 we see that we actually received the Spirit, the holy breath. Putting these verses together, we see that the grace in John 1 is the very Spirit, the holy breath, in John 7 and 20. In Hebrews 10:29 the Spirit is even called the Spirit of grace.
To say that the Spirit is the Spirit of grace does not mean that the Spirit is one thing and grace is another, just as the expression “the Spirit of life” does not mean that the Spirit and life are two different things. Rather, just as the Spirit and life are one, so the Spirit and grace are one. In the same way, to speak of the light of God does not mean that light is something apart from God Himself. It means that God is the very light. In the same principle, when the Bible speaks of the Spirit of grace, it means the Spirit as grace.
We have emphasized the fact that grace is God becoming our enjoyment, that grace is Christ enjoyed by us. Now we need to lay equal stress on the fact that grace is actually the Spirit. Grace is God the Father embodied in the Son and the Son realized as the Spirit. Therefore, ultimately, the Spirit is the very grace.
From our experience we know that when we enjoy grace, we enjoy the Spirit. Whenever we are short of the experience of the Spirit moving in us and anointing us, we do not have the enjoyment of grace. Grace is the moving, acting, and anointing of the Spirit within us. The more we have the moving of the Spirit, the more grace we enjoy.
Once again we may use electricity as an illustration. It is possible to think of electricity as one thing and of electrical current as another thing. However, in actuality the current of electricity is electricity itself in motion. If electricity does not move, it remains electricity itself. But as soon as it begins to move, it becomes the electrical current. But the current is not one thing and electricity another. The current is electricity in motion.
This illustration of electrical current helps us to realize that the Spirit of grace is actually the Spirit moving, acting, and anointing within us. This matter is very subjective. When we see grace in this way, we have hit the mark concerning what grace is. Grace, of course, exists as a reality apart from us. But when grace comes into us, in our experience it is the Spirit. The grace which enters into us and becomes our enjoyment is nothing less than the Spirit Himself.
How then do we receive grace and enjoy it? If we would receive grace and enjoy grace, we need to realize that our spirit is the only place we can experience grace. Just as electricity can be applied only by turning on the switch, so we can contact the moving, anointing Spirit only in our spirit. If you wish to receive grace and enjoy grace, do not exercise your mind, emotion, or will. Instead, turn to your spirit and exercise it. Brothers are usually quite active in the mind, and sisters are usually very strong in the emotion. We need to turn from our mind and emotion back to the spirit, where we shall meet the Lord.
We thank the Lord for revealing to us where He is today. There can be no doubt that, on the one hand, He is on the throne in heaven. But, on the other hand, for our experience He is in our spirit. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for timely help.” The throne of grace is not only in heaven; it is also in our spirit. If it were not in our spirit as well as in heaven, how could we come forward to it? Some may argue that our spirit is not large enough to contain the throne of grace. Although this may seem logical in terms of size, the fact that we can come forward to the throne of grace indicates that, experientially, it is in our spirit. From my experience I know that when I turn to my spirit and call, “Lord Jesus,” I immediately have the sense that the throne of grace is in my spirit.
Whenever we approach the throne of grace by turning to our spirit and calling on the name of the Lord, we should enthrone the Lord. We must give Him the headship, kingship, and lordship in us. What a tremendous difference this makes! Sometimes as we are praying we sense that the Lord is within us, but we are not willing to give Him the throne. Instead of recognizing His kingship, we exalt ourselves above Him and put ourselves on the throne. In a very practical way, we dethrone the Lord. Whenever we fail to enthrone the Lord, the flow of grace stops. At the very time we are praying, we need to allow the Lord to be on the throne within us, honoring Him as the Head, the Lord, and the King. Then grace will flow within us as a river.
In Revelation 22:1 and 2 we see that the river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. God’s throne is thus the source of the flowing grace. To dethrone Him, to take the throne away from Him, is to disregard the source of grace. This causes the flow of grace to cease. This is not a mere doctrine, but something very experiential. Many of us can testify that whenever we fail to enthrone the Lord, we do not receive much grace in our times of prayer.
If we would receive grace and enjoy grace, the first thing we must do is turn to our spirit and forget our mind, emotion, and will. Satan, however, raises up one thing after another to keep us from the spirit. He may provoke an argument between husband and wife. As they are exchanging words, they will find it difficult to turn to the spirit, for their reasonings and their emotion have been stirred up. When our reasoning and our emotion are strong, we find it very difficult to turn to the spirit.
The best way to practice turning to the spirit and staying in the spirit is to have fixed times for prayer. Suppose you set aside ten minutes in the morning to contact the Lord in prayer. During this time, the only thing you should do is exercise yourself to turn to the spirit and stay in the spirit. Do not be concerned about all the things you must do that day. Reject your natural mind, emotion, and will and exercise your spirit to contact the Lord.
The reason so many Christians have little experience of the Lord is that they do not exercise their spirit. Many simply do not want to be in the spirit. Furthermore, in his subtlety, Satan seeks to provoke our mind, emotion, and will. Therefore, it is important for us to learn to remain in the spirit and not be provoked and drawn out by the enemy. We need to exercise our spirit to keep our mind, will, and emotion in their proper place. But if we allow our mind to be stirred up and our emotion to be provoked, we shall lose many opportunities to minister life to others from our spirit. Instead of using our mind in a natural way and instead of allowing our emotion to be provoked, we should exercise our spirit and pray, “Lord, what do You want me to do, and what do You want me to say? Lord, flow out from my spirit through my words to supply life to those in need.” How much better this is than using our natural mind and emotion to deal with situations! What a vast difference this makes! Again and again, I wish to emphasize the fact that our need is to learn to remain in our spirit and to use our spirit.
When we turn to the spirit and stay there, we need to recognize the Lord as the Head and the King and enthrone Him. We need to respect His position, honor His authority, and confess that we have no right to say or do anything on our own. All the ground within us must be given over to the King. If we enthrone the Lord within us, the river of water of life will flow out from the throne to supply us. In this way we shall receive grace and enjoy grace.
Grace is nothing less than the Triune God becoming our enjoyment. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. This Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, now dwells in our spirit. Our need today is to turn to this spirit and remain there, enthroning the Lord. Then in a very practical way our spirit will be joined to the third heaven. We shall realize in our experience that, on the one hand, the Holy of Holies is in heaven and that, on the other hand, it is also in our spirit. This indicates that when we remain in our spirit, we actually touch the heavens. If we enthrone the Lord Jesus within us, the Spirit as the water of life will flow from the throne to supply us. This is grace, and this is the way to receive grace and enjoy grace.
As we receive the Triune God as our grace and enjoy Him as grace, we shall be constituted of Him. Little by little, we shall become one with Him organically. He will become our constituent, and we shall become His expression.