In addition to a spirit, we also have a soul within us. Our soul, which is between our body and our spirit, is our person. The most important part of the soul is the mind. A person is generally governed by the thoughts in his mind. For this reason we must guard our mind. The devil is most vigilant, and he is very good at utilizing our mind. For example, when a sister wakes up in the morning, a thought may come into her mind. She may think, “My husband mistreated me yesterday.” If she accepts this thought, other thoughts will follow. As a result, she will have a long face when she gets out of bed. She will not want to look at her husband, and she may feel hateful toward him. Then the devil will use her hateful feelings and her long face to put a thought into her husband’s mind. The husband will then think, “Why does my wife have such a negative expression on her face?” This thought will give him a long face as well. Then when the sister sees her husband’s long face, the expression on her face will grow even worse. In the end, one of the two will throw their chopsticks on the floor, and the two will begin to fight verbally and maybe even physically. This is an example of how Satan uses the minds of a sister and her husband as a battlefield. Please do not think that I am joking. On the contrary, I am telling you real stories.
What does someone who has learned the spiritual lessons do when Satan puts a thought into his mind? At that very moment, he sets his mind on the spirit. We need to learn how to do this. The mind is between the flesh and the spirit. The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (Rom. 8:6).
There are many people, things, and matters around us that are placed there to tempt us and to stir up our mind. When our mind is stirred up by these temptations, our mind is set on the flesh, and the result is death. If the sisters do not believe me, they should visit a big department store. Then they will see that every display window tempts them. Every pair of shoes in the first window looks good, every hat in the second window looks great, and every skirt in the third window looks even better. Everything is a temptation to us, so what should we do? If we give in to the temptations, the result will be death. What we need to do is to call on the name of the Lord. I know for a fact that if the sisters call, “O Lord!” as they are picking up a pair of shoes, the One within them will tell them to drop the shoes; if they call, “O Lord!” as they are taking a skirt off of a rack of clothes, the One within them will tell them to put the skirt back; if they call, “O Lord!” as they are approaching the next rack, before they could even pick anything up, the One within them will tell them to keep walking; and if they call, “O Lord!” as they are approaching the next rack, the One within them will tell them to go home. If they genuinely obey the Lord and go home, they will be filled with joy and peace within. Then when they come to the meeting that evening, their spirit will be strong, and their speaking will be full of strength.
We must realize that every person, matter, and thing around us can be a tool used by the devil. If we are not watchful, even we can be used by him. This is why we need to set our mind on the spirit continuously. Everything around us tempts us, so our best protection is to turn back to our spirit. How do we do this? We turn back to our spirit by becoming like one who is deaf and blind—unable to hear or see anything—and simply setting our mind on the spirit by calling, “O Lord! O Lord!”
Our mind is neutral, and it straddles between two sides. It can be set on the flesh, or it can be set on the spirit. To set our mind on the flesh is to stand with Satan, and the result is death. To set our mind on the spirit is to stand with the Lord, and the result is life and peace.
We should know that in every situation either God prevails or Satan prevails. Satan and the evil spirits work in every home and in every person. Satan works mostly in the mind. The way that Satan gets to the mind is firstly through the eyes, then through the ears, and then through the mouth, all of which are connected to the mind. Many times we need to close our eyes and not see anything, cover our ears and not hear anything, shut our mouth and not speak anything, and simply call, “O Lord.” If we do this, we will be delivered. If a wife gives her husband a long face, he should not look at her. He should simply call, “O Lord, Amen.” If his wife is being unreasonable, he should not listen to her. He should just declare, “O Lord! Victory, victory, hallelujah!” In such a situation he should not use his mouth to talk to his wife; rather, he should use it to open himself to the Lord. If he does this, Satan will not be able to do anything to him.
We must set our mind on the spirit. This is a very effective secret, but we do not use it enough. After reading this message, you all should be very clear, but tomorrow morning when your wife gives you a long face, you may forget everything. If you continue to look at her long face with your eyes and listen to her grumbling with your ears, you will fall into Satan’s trap. Do not look or listen. Simply set your mind on the spirit by shouting, “Hallelujah!”
Do we have the Lord? We do. Is He our Lord? He is. Is He within us? He is in our spirit. For this we must praise the Lord. Praise the Lord that He is in our spirit! The Lord in our spirit is the key. We should not listen to the old talk in Christianity which says that we should look to the Lord who is in heaven. If we really experience the Lord, we will realize that even though it is true that He is in the heavens, it is even more true that He is within us. Thus, we do not need to try so hard to look to Him in the heavens; we only need to turn inward to our spirit. How do we do this? To turn to our spirit is very simple. All we need to do is to call, “O Lord.” Do we need patience? If we do, we do not need to wait for the Lord, looking to Him for patience. Do we want to love our wife? If we do, we may look to the Lord to give us love, knowing that we cannot love our wife and that only the Lord can cause us to love her. However, this is too objective. In our practical experience, we do not need to be so complicated. Actually, all that we need to do is to call “O Lord! O Lord!” a few times. We do not need to spend time looking to heaven. The Lord Jesus is like heavenly electricity that has been directly connected to our inner being. The Lord is already in our spirit today. To instantly enjoy Him, we only need to turn to our spirit by setting our mind on the spirit.
If we continually set our mind on the spirit, the spirit will have the opportunity to spread outward into our mind, saturating our mind and becoming the spirit of our mind. Initially, the spirit is limited within the spirit, but by spreading into our mind, the spirit becomes the spirit of our mind. This causes us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23). The old is replaced by the new. When the spirit of our mind saturates our entire being, all of our thoughts, feelings, and concepts will be completely changed. The old man will be put off and the new man will be put on. In addition, we will be fully transformed from glory to glory into the image of the Lord.
May the Lord have mercy on us and grace us, so that we will be able to go on in this way. May we all release our spirit and exercise our spirit. May we set our mind on the spirit so that our spirit will be released, freed, and uplifted, and so that our spirit will spread into our entire being, fully transforming us into a man of the new creation who lives in the Body and in the church. The new man is actually the Body of Christ. Thus, to put on the new man is to put on the church, which is just to live the church life.