Many Christians have received teachings that distract them from the spirit. Some have been taught in this way: “Now that you are a child of God, you must behave yourself and glorify God. The Devil, however, is busy. He never sleeps. He will tempt you, seduce you, and cause you to do many evil things. Formerly, you were under his control. Now that you have become a child of God, he will not let you go. Instead, he will do many things to trouble you. Therefore, you need to fast, pray, and exert all your effort to live a proper Christian life.” We have learned from experience that this kind of teaching distracts us from the spirit. The more we make up our mind to behave ourselves for the glory of God, the more we become like the wretched man described in Romans 7.
Defeated Christians who seek the advice of preachers may be exhorted to pray more or to read the Bible more. But even these activities, when they are simply our own doings, can cause us to “switch off” the spirit. The divine electricity has been installed into us. Once it has been switched on, we should not turn the switch off. However, by their innocent doings, many Christians have turned off the switch. As a result, some begin to doubt if they have truly been saved, or if they really have the Spirit. This may cause them to go from one Christian group to another seeking help. This is the situation among many of today’s Christians.
This kind of situation is very different from the good news of the gospel. The gospel is this: God selected us, predestinated us, and marked us out in eternity. Then one day the Son of God came to accomplish everything for our salvation. He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection and has become the life-giving Spirit. When you heard the proclamation of the good news and acknowledged it, this life-giving Spirit entered into you and began to dwell in your spirit. Now just stay in the spirit. Do not do anything that will take you away from the spirit. On the contrary, just declare that you are in the spirit. Proclaim this wonderful fact: “The gospel was a proclamation, and I have acknowledged it. Now the Spirit of God dwells in me, and I am in the spirit.” If we declare this in faith, nothing will be able to defeat us. On the contrary, everything will be under our feet. This is the glad tidings, the gospel of Christ, and the gospel of God. How marvelous!
Those who have been Christians for a long time may still have memories of defeats and failures. Thus, when they hear about proclaiming the fact that since the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are in the spirit, they may ask questions about different things. They may wonder about this and that. We need to forget all these matters and proclaim that we are in spirit. Do not say, “How about my problems at work or at home?” Instead, say, “I am in spirit.”
The small word “in” has very great significance. According to 8:1, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. According to 8:9, since the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. There is no need for us to try to do so many things. We should simply acknowledge the facts and proclaim them.
When I was a young Christian seeking the Lord, I bought many books on subjects such as how to pray, how to be holy, and how to overcome sin. I was always interested in “how to”: how to be spiritual, how to be victorious, how to please God, how to preach the gospel. However, eventually I learned that these books could not help me. Instead of reading books on how to do this or that, it is better to read and pray-read Romans 8 verse by verse. This will fill you with enjoyment. You need to give special attention to verse 9, concentrating on the words “in the spirit.” Again and again, we need to pray over and declare the fact that we are in the spirit.
It is difficult to determine if the word spirit in the phrase “in the spirit” should be capitalized. The reason for the difficulty is that this word refers to the mingled spirit, to the divine Spirit mingled with our regenerated human spirit. Verse 16 refers to these two spirits: “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.” This verse does not say that the Spirit witnesses and our spirit witnesses also. It says the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. To say that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit is deeper than saying that the Spirit and our spirit witness, for it indicates that the two spirits are one. To say that the Spirit and our spirit witness means that these spirits remain two. But to say that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit indicates that the two spirits have been mingled and have become one.