Today we are no longer like the children of Israel in the Old Testament, who had God only among them, not mingled with them. Because the God who was among them could not enter into them, He gave them five long books written by Moses full of regulations, rituals, forms, and instructions. Today, however, the age has changed. God came in the flesh to accomplish redemption, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit, who is the realization of the Triune God, has come into us to regenerate us and mingle Himself with our spirit to make us one with Him. This is wonderful and marvelous! Today the very Triune God is within us and one with us. Because of this, we do not need books full of regulations, rituals, forms, and instructions. The New Testament has no such books. Rather, the apostle Paul charges us to live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and to walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4). This all-inclusive charge is sufficient.
We all need to realize that the Triune God has been wrought into our being, and we have been joined to Him as one spirit. Perhaps some of the young people may say that they have no feeling of being one with the Lord. In actuality, they have much feeling day by day. The unbelieving young people do not have this reality within them, but the believing young people have something wonderful within them, which is the mingled spirit. We all have such a wonderful spirit within us. Many in Christianity have never been instructed to know that within them is a wonderful spirit. This is the reason that Christianity has so many doctrinal teachings. This was not Paul’s way. In 2 Timothy, for example, Paul did not write a long doctrinal letter. At the end of only four chapters he simply said, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you” (4:22). Grace is Christ Himself for our enjoyment, and this Christ today is in our spirit.
Similarly, Paul said at the end of Galatians, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers” (6:18). In order to practice the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we do not need mere outward instructions. What we need is to walk according to the mingled spirit and enjoy Christ as grace in our spirit. To enjoy Christ as grace, we simply need to take a drink of Christ. In our daily living drinking is very crucial. Every morning after I rise up, the first thing that I do is take a glass of water. Then at breakfast I drink something more, and throughout the day I drink even more. This is the reason I am so energetic. We need to drink Christ, who is the fountain in our spirit. The waters that Elisha healed in Jericho are a picture of the Christ whom we drink. Jericho is situated in a low valley, a desert that is full of dust and heat. Within that valley, however, is a strip of green land that is watered by the spring that Elisha healed (2 Kings 2:19-22). Originally we all were a “Jericho,” cursed and condemned (Josh. 6:26), but our Elisha, Jesus Christ, has healed the waters within us. Today we all have a healed fountain of living water within us that springs up into eternal life (John 4:14). If we drink of this fountain day by day, the church will be watered and flourishing.
The local churches in the Lord’s recovery may be composed in several ways. A certain church may be composed of all ages, of which the church in Anaheim is a good model. The church in another locality may also be composed of saints of different ages, but that locality may have many good colleges and universities with a large number of students, for whom the young people will be burdened. In this case, a group of young saints can go there but not to set up another church. To do this would be to create a division, because there is already a church in that locality. A third local church may be composed of saints of all ages, but in it there may be a few young people who are studying at some smaller colleges and universities. Thus, this church will be composed of all ages and also have some young college and university students.
Regardless of the composition of the churches, we must realize that we are not in an age of doctrine; we are in the age of the mingled spirit. Therefore, the young saints should not engage in any doctrinal debates. Whereas the older ones often have religious concepts, young people tend to have many natural concepts. In the church, however, we must all drop our concepts. We need to return to our spirit and remain in our spirit continually. We do not care for doctrinal debates; we care only for the mingled spirit. What we have fellowshipped here is according to the Lord’s economy today, and He will work it out. The Lord will use the young saints to capture many of their peers in the United States, and then He will train them and send them to other countries. In this way the Lord will spread His recovery and produce many firstfruits for the rapture (Rev. 14:1-5).